Vocaloid Resonance
by Xiahou Mel
Summary: A near future day anime/manga style world with a SciFi/fantasy twist to the Vocaloids and their dancing and what's really going on behind the scenes, the things the rest of the world doesn't know and must not find out. Rated M for language and Femslash/Yuri. Haku/Luka/Miku
1. Vocaloid Academy Chapter 1

What if Vocaloids had an anime/manga style setting? Something to show a world they come from and a reason for their dancing that maybe no one understands? I have very recently fallen in love with Vocaloids and, and randomly the other day my crazy brain came up with a whole modern day/fantasy/supernatural genre themed world for them. Rated M for language and Femslash/Yuri pairings.

Legal disclaimer: Not sure if I need one but I don't own anything, all rights to Vocaloids. Lol

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 _The train sure is crowded tonight…_ Haku thought idly as she swayed gently in her seat with the side to side motion of the car as the train sped down the tracks. The motion used to make her queasy when she was younger but now that she was eighteen it didn't have an affect on her at all anymore. Well… mostly not, anyway. Infact she was bored, her idle gaze shifting from out the window to gaze at the passengers and back again off and on as she sat listening to music on her iPhone. It was the newest model; everything she owned was the newest and nicest and best there was. The result of having rich parents she supposed. Buuuuuuuuuuut…

Letting out a little sigh Haku shifted her bottom on the train seat trying to get more comfortable, then winced as some of her long black hair cascading down her back in a long loose ponytail, tied back with a thick purple ribbon looped in a bow at the back of her neck, got caught in the crack between her seat and the isle seat beside her. The man sitting beside her didn't seem to notice, all his attention apparently focused on some official looking papers, his business suit marking him as someone probably taking his work home with him. Haku sure knew how that went…

Setting her iPhone carefully in her lap so it wouldn't slide off with the motion of the train she leaned her head a bit to the side to work at freeing her hair. She took very good care of her hair and if this snapped some of the strands it would take a lot of work to keep the ends from fraying. Luckily she got the strands loose and tucked it back behind her against the seat back before shifting uncomfortably once more. She caught her reflection in the darkened night window of the train beside her seat, a forlorn expression on her face narrowing her dark brown eyes. Train rides were so dull…

Picking up her iPhone again she began to fiddle with the glittery pink device. It hadn't been glittery when she'd gotten it; another result of idle boredom one afternoon. She tried to focus on the song currently playing, one of her favorites from her her favorite pop idol Megurine Luka. The woman was perhaps a little bit old for a pop idol at twenty years of age, but to Haku that just gave her an air of maturity that she found… well, extremely appealing to say the least. But even the talents of Megurine Luka couldn't stave off the idle boredom of this train ride.

A little notification sound plinged from the earbud in her ear and she glanced down at her iPhone screen. Bluetooth notification? She tilted the screen up to see better and blinked a few times at the notification saying there were connectable devices in range. What devices? She perked up a bit as her interest peaked slightly and she tapped the notification with her thumb. The screen shifted to show a list of detected bluetooth devices and she stared at the name on the screen. TramSpeakers114? She turned her gaze up toward the ceiling of the car she was in. There were speakers mounted along the edges, for announcements or emergency notifications. But… her eyes narrowed. There were a few scrapes on the edges of the wall and ceiling where the mounting had been done, but none on the speakers themselves. She ran her gaze along the ceiling for some length and saw the same on multiple of them. They looked new, much newer than the train car.

The corner of her mouth pulled up in a little smirk. The train car was so dreary, surely everyone would feel a little better with some music? Whoever the idiot was that had installed bluetooth speakers in a public train without hiding the signal had not done their job properly, and now Haku had a chance to share Luka's music with the whole train. Noticing there was a password caused her only a momentary annoyed frown, but it shouldn't be hard to hack it. She caught her lower lip between her teeth in an unconscious gestures of focus, producing a cute little look on her face that she was completely unaware of.

Haku didn't think of herself as especially intelligent or witty, but her teachers had all always told her she was far too smart for her own good, and not just because she always got straight A's in everything. To her it was just more distraction to fill her idle hours. Her parents might be rich, but there was a reason for that. They were both extremely prominent scientists and therefore were always gone, always at the lab or on projects abroad. Oh they saw she was well cared for of course, providing for her in every possible way. She had her heart's desire at her beck and call at all times, had been enrolled in a fancy private school since she was a child, and allowed to pretty much do whatever she wanted to. Yet what kind of life was that for a child? Being attended to and waited on by maids and butlers wasn't the same as having friends, and all the other kids at her school were so… stuffy. Even getting her father to let her ride the train instead of being ferried everywhere in an expensive private car had been a battle until her father had finally relented, but even that novelty had long since worn off, even after she had moved out to her own little house. Her parents provided for her, cared for her, but didn't really LOVE her, at least not that she had ever seen. They were never around, and she had nothing to do but study and fill her idle hours in any way she could.

Tapping the screen a couple of times to bring up her apps and open the custom code breaking one she had written herself, Haku ran a pattern algorithm on the password to the speakers. It would take a few minutes and in the meantime she switched the screen over to the song she had been listening to a moment ago, turning the slider bar back to the beginning of the song so it was ready to play once the password cracked.

The train shuddered as it pulled into a station and slowed to a stop at a platform. She glanced up briefly as the businessman beside her got up as though to leave, her gaze following him for a brief moment as he headed down the aisle, and then a flash of pink caught the corner of her eye through the windows of the doors and her breath suddenly stuck in her throat. It couldn't be… no way… could it…?

It was. Megurine Luka strode onto the train with a confident sort of commanding presence that made Haku at feel intimidated, safe, and anxious all at once. Anxious for a chance to meet her, to talk to her, anything… Luka stepped into the train with her perfect pink hair falling in waves down her back tied high on the back of her head with a thin red ribbon, framing her perfect form encased in skin tight black pants, stiletto boots, and a shirt that left her lower arms and shoulders bare, and matching fingerless gloves. It was a hunter's outfit, a warrior's pose. Her gaze swept the inhabitants of the train car, her piercing eyes sometimes grey, sometimes blue, and everything in between depending on the angle the light hit them as she looked for… what? A seat maybe? Why was a pop idol on a public train anyway?

Haku shifted further back in her seat shrinking in on herself trying not to be seen. Then she froze. Why not be seen? How many times had she dreamed of a moment like this? How many times had she wished fervently for such an opportunity? She'd even had dreams that started like this that left her gasping on waking with funny feelings deep inside that she couldn't explain. But… but… all that aside, there was no way she could approach her. This was Megurine Luka! She was famous! How could such a wonderful and beautiful woman as her possibly want anything to do with an ordinary girl like her? She shrank back into her seat after all wishing she had the nerve to approach her.

The train lurched as it took off from the platform once more, and Luka casually reached a delicate looking hand up to grasp one of the overhead handles. She didn't make any move to take a seat as her piercing gaze continued to scan the train car. If she wasn't looking for a seat, what was she looking for? Haku's grip on her iPhone tightened as she realized she could offer the woman the seat next to her. The businessman had left after all! She turned her dark eyes to glance at the seat by her… and froze.

The businessman hadn't gotten off the train after all, he was back in his seat… and he was staring right at Haku. She blinked several times trying to comprehend why he suddenly looked so… so pale… and his eyes were so… round… and all one color… swirling black orbs filling her vision. She couldn't see anything else, couldn't breathe, couldn't do anything but stare deeply into his eyes. She felt an awful wrenching sort of feeling deep within herself. Not a physical sensation, but painful just the same if in some other way that she couldn't understand or even begin to describe. It went on for years… it went on for seconds. She couldn't tell, all she knew was that every ounce of her being seemed to be getting sucked out of her somehow. She felt weak, felt her eyes trying to close, felt her muscles giving up. She was going to die.

Unbeknownst to her Haku's free hand slipped down into her lap to bump the still active screen of her iPhone still held in her other hand laying against her leg. The pattern matching algorithm had cracked the bluetooth speaker's password and connected to them, and her hand happened to hit the play button on her favorite of Luka's songs right at the beginning where she had prepared it minutes before, a cover the idol had done earlier the previous year. Every speaker in the train car crackled to life and suddenly Luka's voice filled the train, much to the confusion of the idol herself as she had been looking the opposite direction when the businessman had sat back down. Luka had only just turned around in time to see what was happening, just in time to see the flow of life energy the suited man was sucking from Haku's soul. No one else present on the train could see it of course, but Luka could, and she started rushing forward even as her own voice came over the speakers singing Gishin'anki.

"Asobasa ta shisen wa maadaa, (That idle gaze of yours,

kumo no naka mitai you wonder, Like your head's just stuck in the clouds,

kanjirareru no wa sugoi, Sensing a menacing bloodthirstiness,

Sakki you feel it kyoui All around you.)

Only seconds had passed as the words began to wash through the train and Luka had only managed a few steps yet the life energy flowing out of Haku had already began to change her, warp her appearance. The color drained from her long hair starting at the tips and working up toward the roots in her head, the entirety of it turning a silvery white in moments as though the color were being drained from it just as the life was being drained from the girl, and her eyes changed from a dark brown lightening up and turning a bright red. Haku's mouth was opened in a wide "O" shape as though to scream but no sound came out. Yet the moment Luka's words hit the air she could feel the power in them, even if no one else could… except for the Souldrinker.

The suited man shrieked in pain and the life energy flow cut off abruptly as it recoiled away from it's meal, causing Haku's now red eyes to flutter as she sagged back in her seat gasping for breath, her hands going to her chest in a subconscious defensive manner. The Souldrinker experienced a degree of pain from no more than Luka's recorded words, the power within her voice such that it came through even speakers. Yet that was a mere shadow of her true power of course, and as she drew up beside the pair she let it loose, raising her arms over head in a precise dancer's pose as she began to sing along with her own recording.

"Koko de wa sema sugiru kara, (This place is suffocating us,

Dokka e ito ka ima kara, so let's make a run for it now,

Hamidasu kanjou no iro try and guess the color of the feelings

Kimi ga ate te miro" I'm about to lay bare before you.)

The creature didn't last long with her full voice in it, her hips swaying to her song coming now from the speakers as well as herself, her arms stretching out and whirling about in a dancer's arc overhead, the sonic vibrations shooting forth from her whenever a wrist twisted or an elbow bent, always aimed at the thing on the train seat. No one but she could see the waves of sonic energy she was producing as she sang, no normal human could, nor could they see the life energy streaming out of the Souldrinker as it sagged back in obvious pain before the light left it's black orbs and it sagged back in it's chair. No one else could see… except for Haku.

The silver haired girl's now red eyes were wide as she panted, out of breath from her ordeal as she watched the whole the thing. She felt weak down to her bones like she hadn't slept in weeks, or months, but that was nothing to what she was seeing now. What WAS she seeing now? Her idol had rescued her from… something, whatever it was, that was for sure. The train car had emptied out in a hurry though in truth the creature hadn't lasted even a few lyrics into the the verse, only a few dance moves from Luka and it had collapsed.

"Are you alright?" Luka asked, and Haku jumped at the question as the music continued to play on the speakers overhead. Luka was looking straight at her, and Haku felt her heart racing, though whether from what had happened or from anxiousness at the other woman's presence she had no idea.

"I… I think… so…" she spluttered out, tapping the stop button on the music on her iPhone, then suddenly finding she couldn't stand to be within arms reach of the now dead creature she shuddered and jumped up from her seat. Or tried, anyway. Her body was just as weak as it felt, and with a cry she began to topple forward as she got up, her arms pinwheeling as she tried to catch something to stop her fall… and found there was no need as she was caught in Luka's arms. She looked up at the slightly taller woman shyly through her now silvery white bangs… wait… silvery white? She blinked and groped frantically for her loose ponytail and pulled a handful around to look at it. Silvery white…

Luka apparently could see the confusion and upset starting in her face and she made a soothing shushing sound barely audible over the mostly empty train car clattering. "I'll explain, but first let's get out of here. My name is Megurine Luka. Do you have somewhere we can talk?"

"Yo… Yowane Haku… I… I live nearby…" Haku managed and at Luka's nod she let the idol help her to the doors of the train. Despite her weakness Haku didn't want to sit back down, so she leaned against the other woman's soft body, pressing into her leathers. She felt her cheeks flush at the contact, but she truly didn't think she could support herself at the moment and besides Luka didn't seem to mind. In fact the idol was all business like as they waited in silence for the next train station, then helped her step down onto the platform with a courteous hand and a reassuring smile. Haku smiled back and looked around. "Where now?"

"I have transportation waiting." Luka replied, and Haku blinked in surprise.

"You had transportation? Then why were you on the train to begin with?"

Luka smiled again. "You're quick on the uptake aren't you? I like that." Haku flushed in embarrassment at the compliment but Luka continued. "Like I said, I'll explain but let's get out of here first."

The idol lead the way out of the station as the train pulled away taking the… whatever it was with it. Luka pulled out her own cell as they went, an Android from what Haku could see, and tapped the screen a few times to connect a call. All she said into it was "Dispatched, still aboard, needing cleanup." Then she ended the call seemingly without waiting for a response, slid the phone back into a pocket, and they rounded a corner to find a sleek motorcycle waiting. It was sleek but not small, yet not large enough to be considered a hog either. The handlebars were only slightly curved and though you had to sit upright in the seat and slightly forward it was still comfortable enough. Luka lifted the helmet off the handlebars and pulled a key from her pocket then paused a moment before handing the helmet to Haku. "I only have one, I wasn't expecting passengers tonight." she explained, then studiously ignored Haku's objections and attempts to give it back. She swung one leg over the front part of the seat and indicated the back part behind her with a toss of her head, her pink cascading hair flicking with the motion. "Hop on."

Haku took a deep breath before settling the helmet on over her hair, trying not to wince as she caught a view of the now silvery white locks out of the corner of her eye again. Then with a hand from Luka to steady herself she managed to sit on the back without too much worry of falling off despite her weakened state. Luka kicked the motorcycle alive with a roar and a rev or two on the engine before taking off into the streets of the city. With Haku pointing the way and shouting where to turn they arrived at the small house her parents kept her in within a quarter of an hour, and she clung to the idol the whole way, still anxious about the contact but still not wanting to let go. Yet at last they pulled up outside the small house and she sighed regretfully when it was time to let go in spite of the anxiousness.

With Luka's help keeping her upright they approached the front of the house and Haku opened the door to the entryway. It was a modest sitting room, but Haku hadn't wanted anything large when she finally moved away from her parent's wealth and maids and butlers, so she had this quiet place to herself for the most part.

"No one else home?" Luka asked as Haku flicked the light on and they walked inside.

"No, the maids only came by once a week or so to clean up." She replied automatically, not thinking since the question was so in line with her own thoughts, or maybe she was still just feeling off from her… ordeal. Luka raised a questioning eyebrow at her but Haku cleared her throat as they moved into the modest sitting room and glanced toward the back where the kitchen was. "Would you… like something to drink? There's… uhm… orange juice and water, I suppose…" she trailed off.

Luka flashed a small amused smile and lowered Haku into a cushy looking arm chair. "You're still weak, I'll get them if that's alright." It wasn't a question, but it was polite nonetheless, and Haku let herself drop the last couple of inches into the chair as Luka turned toward the kitchen. She came back a moment later with water and orange juice both and handed Haku a glass of water. "Start with this, you'll feel better in a few minutes."

Haku took the water with a grateful smile and asked, "What exactly happened?" She raised the glass to her lips and sipped at the water.

Luka settled herself gracefully onto the only other seat in the room, the end of a small love seat near the armchair. She looked a little bemused for a moment before letting out a small but cute little sigh. "It's… it's a lot to explain. I suppose I should start by telling you what that was. We call them Souldrinkers."

"We?" Haku asked between sips of her water.

"We…" Luka breathed with a pause before finishing, "Are the Vocaloids."

There was a long heavy pause in the air for a moment or two. Haku had no idea what to say to that so she just looked at this beautiful woman who an hour gone she would never have thought she'd actually get the chance to meet and now all she could think was that if Luka left her alone right then she might actually curl up and die.

After a moment Luka continued. "The Souldrinkers look like normal people in every way from day to day, except for when they need to feed. When that urge comes on them it's so powerful they can't resist it beyond basic reasoning, which is why that one attacked you in such a public way, though usually they try to be a little more circumspect than that if they can."

Another pause as Luka apparently tried to think of exactly how to put it and Haku slipped another question in. "What are the Vocaloids?"

"We're a group of people who have discovered that we can fight them. We have the ability to see their energy draining abilities, and we can hurt them with our own sonic energies."

"Sonic energies… you mean singing?" Haku asked, and Luka smiled again.

"You really are quick. Yes, singing. Our voices have power, our very bodies have power, but there's far more to it than I can really get into right at the moment."

"But you have this power."

"I do."

"So all idols can kill them?"

Luka shook her head. "We're all just ordinary people, and we do with our lives what we want to for the most part, and I happen to be an idol. Yet we are organized and live together in our compound so we can train, and when a threat is detected someone is sent to deal with it, depending on who's strong enough to and whose closest.'

"So that was an especially strong one then?" Haku asked, setting her empty water glass down on the table before stopping with a pause even before Luka started shaking her head and she corrected herself. "No, it couldn't have been, you killed it so easily, which means you're just that strong." She looked up but her weakness made her sway and lean back into the armchair again. "You were just close by."

Luka nodded with that smile again and reached down to lift a cup of orange juice and push it gently into Haku's hands. "That's right, I was hunting it. How are you so quick to pick things up? Are you a genius or something?"

Haku spluttered in her orange juice and shook her head in denial. "Nono, I just… I've lived alone for a long time and I… well I learned to think things through is all…" she trailed off weakly, not wanting to get into her past right at that moment.

Luka tilted her head quizzically in another of her cute graceful gestures but nodded acceptance. "Well, you have it right, that one was really weak, it must not have been very old. Even a recording of my voice was enough to hurt it, though I don't know how my music ended up on the overhead speakers in a public train."

Haku blushed and tried to bury her face in her cup under the guise of taking a sip of the juice but Luka saw it anyway. She smirked, thinking that must be a story for later, but didn't press it right then.

"Why are you telling me all this anyway?" Haku asked suddenly, and when Luka tilted her head quizzically she added, "About the Vocaloids I mean. I've never heard anything about them, and if you were out there fighting monsters I'm sure someone would have ended up on the news or something by now. Which means it must be secret, right? You could have just told me I was attacked and you helped me out of it right?"

Luka narrowed her eyes over her amused smile and flicked her loose pink ponytail back over her shoulder with a casual flick of a wrist. "Normal people can't see the what the Souldrinkers do, or the sonic energy that Vocaloids produce. Only those of us with the ability to be Vocaloids can see it, let alone fight it." She paused very intently to punctuate her point as her eyes, very blue at that moment, peered right into Haku's now red ones. "You could see it, I saw it in your eyes afterward. Some of it anyway, after I broke the Souldrinker's hold on you. If you hadn't, then I wouldn't have explained. I would just have helped you home and left. It's so rare for someone to survive a Souldrinker attack any Vocaloid would have helped you home at the very least."

Haku swallowed the mouthful of juice she had too hard at that and choked on it for a moment, the implication unsettling her so. "Then… then it really could have killed me…"

Luka nodded with a sympathetic look on her face, and she reached a hand out to take one of Haku's gently, reassuringly. "Yowane-san, it only takes a short time for a Souldrinker to feed. Twenty or thirty seconds usually, sometimes longer if the victim is especially strong willed, full of life energy. It drains a person of their very soul, their life energy, and reduces them to a pale husk. If my music hadn't come on the speakers when it did, interrupted it in it's feeding on you… I might not have been in time, even though I was so close when it struck. I wasn't watching you when it happened, and I… I might not have been able to…"

Luka trailed off but didn't move to take her hand back, and Haku squeezed it tightly trying not to feel anxious about doing so, but to her surprise she got a squeeze back. Luka looked up and caught her gaze again and the two women stared at each other for a very long few moments before Haku managed to get something out.

"Ha… Haku is fine…"

Luka blinked for a moment taken aback, then smiled that small yet radiant smile again. Haku thought perhaps it was a special pleased smile she didn't show very often. "Alright then, Haku-chan. Then you may call me Luka."

Haku's cheeks blazed. How many times had her dreams gone like this…? Well… the last bit anyway. Not the whole attack and possible death parts… "L… Luka…"

Luka's smile remained for a moment or two before she turned her head to glance around at the small sitting room. "I know you probably have more questions, but I really need to call in and make sure the cleanup crew got the body out of the train and dealt with any potential leaks."

"Leaks? You're with the government?"

Luka shook her head, her pink ponytail swaying behind her. "No, we're a private organization. The government doesn't know we exist, and neither does the public. We're still trying to figure out how this happened and where these things are coming from before we take it to the government." She paused a moment before adding in a lower voice, "IF we take it to the government…" She sighed and made to stand up.

Haku was about to ask what that IF meant but as the other woman stood she suddenly got worried this meant she was leaving and reached a hand out to snatch up Luka's. The idol paused a moment and looked down with that small smile again. "Don't worry, I'm not going anywhere, just need to make the call."

"Then you'll…" Haku swallowed hard and forced the words out. "You'll… stay… with me tonight?"

Luka tilted her head a bit at that for a moment before saying, "No." Haku's heart fell into her stomach before she noticed the smile. "No, you're coming back with me I think. We have medical staff who will want to examine you before we leave you alone. Like I said, survivors are rare, and they'll want to look you over."

Haku made a face. It wasn't exactly what she wanted but… well… it was better than staying here all alone.

Her face must have visibly fallen because Luka squeezed her hand again. "Don't worry, I'll stay with you the whole time we're there ok?" After Haku nodded she pulled her hand back and went to step toward the hall. "I'll just be a moment. You can get a bag with whatever you need together for the next day or so. If you feel up to moving?"

Haku managed to get up on her own finding she did feel a bit better, taking it slowly and gave a small nod. Heading back deeper into her small home to her bedroom she pulled out a small overnight bag from under the bed and put a change of clothes into it, a simple pair of black pants and a white v-neck tshirt. Simple, but still expensive designer cut. She glanced at her reflection in her stand mirror, her silvery white hair and red eyes making her wince, but she considered her clothes. Another simple yet designer affair, and wondered if she should change. When she thought about surviving a life threatening ordeal her imagination conjured up images of blood and sweat and injury, yet she still looked as fresh as she had an hour ago, with no visible marks. She glanced at her hair and eyes in the mirror with another wince. Well, almost no visible marks…

Deciding it would be better to be ready quicker and worry about a shower later (if they had a compound and overnight facilities they must have a washroom and shower) Haku retrieved her rose scented soap and lavender shampoo and conditioner, her personal hygiene products, and her iPhone charger and added them to the bag. Zipping it closed she left her ornately frilly room behind and joined Luka in the entryway.

"All set?" Luka asked, and Haku nodded. "Good." She stepped outside once Haku had opened the door and the two women paused in the front yard as Haku hit the lights and locked the front door. They headed back out to the front walk where Luka had parked and Haku paused and looked back. Luka turned when she noticed Haku turn and tilted her head questioningly. "Something wrong?"

Haku stood staring at the little house for a long moment or two before answering quietly, "I… can't help but feel like something in my life has ended tonight…"

Haku blinked in surprise as Luka's hand came up as though toward her cheek, both women froze for a moment before the hand seemed to change direction and lay reassuringly on Haku's upper arm.

"Not ended." Luka said. "Changed, maybe, depending on how things go, but not ended."

With that Haku slid onto the back of the motorcycle as the engine roared to life once more and the two women zipped off down the street, pink and silver hair streaming behind them like banners.


	2. Vocaloid Academy Chapter 2

Looking around the medical exam room Haku nervously pulled the sheet that was her only garment at the moment a little bit tighter up around herself. It was a sterile closed off room with a cold uncomfortable exam table, which she was currently leaned back against at angle on, and various trays of instruments around the majority of which she didn't recognize. There were two doctors in the room with her (both women, thankfully) and a window by the door which served as an observation port for those outside (not all women out there). She could see perhaps half a dozen others watching or conversing amongst themselves. Luka was out there too, the pink haired beauty offering Haku that small smile of encouragement whenever their eyes met. Haku was sure at this point it was a private smile, one most people didn't get out of her. It was just so… radiant. She wasn't sure why she got it, but she smiled back even if nervously. One of the men outside looked up and she pulled the sheet tighter still around her bare skin.

"Now, Yowane-san." One of the doctors with her said, and she shifted her red eyed gaze to the woman. Her silvery white hair shifted with her head turn to slide down the front of the sheet, and though the lack of color in her long flowing hair made her wince (she still wasn't used to seeing that) she was at least a little glad for the extra covering, even if it was her hair.

Something in her expression must have given the doctor pause because she tilted her head and put the back of her hand to Haku's forehead. "Are you alright? You look a little… flushed."

"I… I'm fine, Doctor Hatsune…" Haku muttered over the edge of the sheet hem she had clutched to her chin.

Doctor Hatsune tilted her head in consideration of her patient. Somewhere in her middle years Hatsune Mira was still a more than pretty woman with her blue eyes that seemed to weigh and measure you at a glance and her teal hair pulled back in a very business like fashion, the tail disappearing beneath her white lab coat. The other doctor, Harune Hikari, was going through Haku's iPhone.

"I thought you said there were pictures of yourself on your phone, Yowane-san?"

"There's… a few…" Haku murmured. She thought her grip on the sheet might poke a hole in it any moment. Her red eyed gaze darted to the window and her idol behind the glass. Luka smiled at her again, and gave a little nod.

"I'm not seeing… ah, here we are." Doctor Harune held the phone screen up for Doctor Hatsune to see, and the other woman blinked in surprise.

"Oh my, yes I see." Doctor Hatsune said. "Your hair and eyes really did used to be dark didn't they." She shifted her gaze from the picture of Haku on the phone screen (a selfie she had taken beside her favorite stuffed animal, a giant tigress) and back again a few times before tilting her head. "And it seems even your skin pigmentation suffered to a small degree. You're much more pale than you used to be."

Haku tried to shift an elbow out from beneath the sheet to look for herself but then decided with a blush it wasn't worth it. She could always look later…

"And your complexion too." Doctor Hatsune continued. "You're a little redder under the eyes and on your cheeks than before, though really it just looks like you might be blushing." She smiled abruptly and patted Haku on the cheek. "Don't worry, you're still quite the pretty little thing."

Haku didn't think she was particularly pretty, but she smiled gratefully anyway before darting her gaze in search of Luka once more. The pink haired idol was definitely pretty. Beautiful. Far more than she herself was. But she didn't get a smile this time as Luka seemed to have had her attention captured by the man that had looked up before. He had teal hair too, cut short in a military crew cut. Clean shaven with broad shoulders and a squared jaw he was probably the tallest man Haku had ever seen. She'd heard someone refer to him as "Director Hatsune." Maybe he was doctor Hatsune's husband?

For her part the doctor patted her once more and stepped over to the window. "That's all for the medical exam, Yowane-san. You can get dressed now." She reached up to draw the shades so Haku would have privacy to do so, for which she was extremely grateful. The shades had been open for the entire examination, and though the doctors had done their best to preserve Haku's modesty it had been nearly half an hour of juggling the sheet while they looked over every inch of her for signs of injury or infection beyond the visible signs of color changes. They had even wheeled out some sort of machine on wheels with a mass of scary looking pokies and prodies on it that had nearly made her panic until Doctor Hatsune had reassured her by saying they were just going to scan her with it and take a small tissue sample this time. The "Sonic Vibration Tester" they had called it.

Haku managed to slide her panties and jeans up her legs without dropping the sheet but couldn't manage the same trick with her bra and shirt so she let it go and pulled them on hastily with the result of needing to adjust them furiously after the fact. After she pulled her shoes back on Doctor Harune handed her iPhone back.

"Thank you…" Haku muttered still trying to get over the embarrassment. She looked at the screen a moment or two wondering if the doctor had seen anything she shouldn't have. She didn't think so, she hid those things very well, but… well she couldn't check for sure until she was in private. So she clicked the screen off and slid the phone into her right front pocket where she liked to keep it. The weight was reassuring there.

The doctors escorted her out of the exam room into the hallway to face the directors. Three men including Director Hatsune and two other women, and Doctor Hatsune stepped over to join them as she was the medical director. Luka had introduced them all when they had arrived. The directors were a sort of governing board for their organization and each one had a different area they managed, though they all met to discuss all aspects of the organization. Director Hatsune seemed to be the head in some way, but Haku wasn't sure how yet.

Doctor Hatsune held out a piece of printed out paper from the Sonic Vibration Tester they had used on her, and his eyes widened. He shifted his gaze up to his wife and when he spoke his voice was a deep bass that seemed to reverberate off the walls. "You're certain?" The doctor nodded and Luka stepped forward to take a look over her shoulder. The idol's eyes went wide and she turned her surprised gaze on Haku, who blinked in confusion.

Haku swallowed hard and made herself ask, "What… what's wrong with me?"

Every eye turned to her at that moment and she couldn't help but take a withering step back, her nervousness bordering on anxiety now. Luka's gaze shifted from shock to reassuring and she stepped away from the doctor and up to Haku, taking the silvery white haired girl's arm in hers. Haku's anxiety did spike then, but for other reasons, but she was glad of the contact.

"Nothing, Haku-chan. It's not what's wrong that's surprising." Luka said in a warm comforting tone.

"It seems you have a great deal of potential." Director Hatsune's bass boomed off the walls again. "Megurine-san told us she informed you as to what we do? How we do it?"

Haku blinked her red eyes and glanced at Luka before looking back. "She… she told me some. About the Souldrinkers, how they suck the life energy out of a person when they feed on them, and how your organization, the Vocaloids, fight them with sonic energy."

Director Hatsune nodded. "There is a great deal more to it than that, but yes that is the basis of it." He reached out to take the printed report from Doctor Hatsune and he held it up for Haku to see. She looked at it but it had a lot of medical garble all over it and she couldn't make heads or tails of it.

"I don't understand." She said after looking at it.

"Right here." Director Hatsune said, pointing to a spot on the page with a four digit number on it. "One hundred forty-seven times." He paused as though he expected Haku to understand the significance of the number but she just blinked and looked around at the faces all staring at her. When it was obvious she didn't get it he continued. "Anyone who has the ability to become a Vocaloid and manipule sonic energies can be measured. It's an indication of their potential power, if you will. Are you familiar with sound scale?"

Haku blinked at the sudden odd question and tilted her head. "Frequencies measured in hertz?"

The director nodded. "A Vocaloid's sonic energies are measured in frequencies beyond that of normal human perception ranges. Much like how animals can hear sounds so high pitched that the human ear can't hear it, so too do a Vocaloid's sonic energies vibrate in higher ranges. With training those energies can be focused to generate at certain ranges which harm the Souldrinkers. This number-" He pointed at the page again. "Is representative of how far above the normal human hearing range a Vocaloid's sonics can reach. Human hearing range is-"

"Between twenty hertz and twenty kilohertz." Haku said, getting a surprised look from everyone present, causing her to blush again, and Luka actually giggled beside her.

"I told you she was a genius director." Luka said.

"Am not…" Haku muttered, and Luka just smiled and patted her arm.

The director cleared his throat. "Hm. Yes, well. The potential height that your sonic energies can reach is one hundred forty seven times that of normal human perception ranges. Or in other words, nearly three thousand kilohertz."

Haku blinked. "And that's unusual for your organization?"

"Highly unusual." Director Hatsune confirmed with a nod. "Megurine-san here-" he nodded to Luka. "-is one of our most powerful Vocaloids. She hasn't yet reached her full potential, yet even she rates at one hundred forty five times. My daughter, another of our most powerful, rates at one hundred forty three times." He paused for a moment to let that sink in by way of punctuating his point before adding, "They are the only two aside from you that we have ever seen who exceed one hundred forty times. We have some who rate between one hundred thirty and one hundred forty, but the majority of our Vocaloids rate between one hundred twenty and one hundred thirty. If we consider our baseline at one hundred times, we rank them every ten times thereafter starting at D. Thus, Megurine-san is an S-rank Vocaloid, among the best we have to offer."

"And… and I'm… stronger? That can't be…"

"Potentially stronger." The director corrected. "Right now you're completely untrained with no control over your abilities. We can change that though… if you want to become one of us."

Haku blinked in surprise, "Join you…?"

The director nodded. "We have to be very careful of our numbers so we don't attract attention from the government since we're a private organization, and thus every potential member must have a sponsor by a high ranking member, and even then the directors have final say. We are currently at the maximum number we wished to have, but Megurine-san made an impassioned plea on your behalf, and considering your potential…" His deep booming base trailed off, like a boulder rumbling down a hill trails off, and he glanced back at the other directors behind him, who all gave nods of agreement, some more reluctantly or hesitant than others, but they all did.

Haku barely noticed the nods, her red eyes widening in surprise again and she turned to look at Luka who simply gave her that small private smile back, her eyes looking grey in this light glinting with a mischievous light. "You… sponsored me? Why?"

Luka squeezed Haku's arm. "I knew as soon as we talked the other night that we needed you in the Vocaloids. You pick things up so fast, and you're so brilliant, even if you don't think you are. And it's been a long time since I felt-" She cut off abruptly as a look of pain flashed through her expression, there and gone so fast Haku almost thought she'd imagined it. She was going to ask but thought the pink haired beauty might not want to talk about it in front of so many people. Luckily the director cut in.

"If you wish to join us, the choice is up to you. There is training to be sure, but also an education of sorts. As your sponsor it's up to Luka to see to it all, and anything you do reflects on her, so if you break our code of conduct there will be consequences."

Haku winced and looked between Director Hatsune and her idol beside her. "That's… that's a heavy burden. This is all so much to take in… what if… what if I don't…?"

The director's face hardened and he opened his mouth but Doctor Hatsune laid a hand on his arm and he shut his mouth with an audible click of his teeth as his wife spoke. "No one will force you, dear. You aren't obliged to anything yet. But if you do decide to, there will be no going back later, no changing your mind."

Haku fell silent for a long few moments, her red eyes falling toward the light blue carpeted floor. She didn't know what to say, what to do, what to think. This was all happening so fast. A couple of hours ago she was just another student living alone on a train home from university, and now… Now she had white hair and red eyes after almost being killed, yet had been saved by the most beautiful idol in the world that she'd wanted so badly to meet… so badly to… well… that was going faster than it should, too.

She was silent so long that Luka cut in with another squeeze to her charge's arm. She gave her head a toss, her pink cascading ponytail whipping a bit behind her as she met Director Hatsune's gaze. "Director, may I take Haku somewhere for a private talk before she decides?"

He turned his head slightly as though wanting to look toward something else but ended up staring at the two girls out of the corner of his eyes. His wife's touch to his arm firmed and his eyes narrowed once more but then he gave a small nod. "Very well, but not too far. Until she makes a decision, Yowane-san is considered a security risk."

"I understand, and I take full responsibility." Luka said, receiving another nod of the head from the director. Luka took Haku's hand and the crowd parted for them as the idol lead her charge out of the hallway and through several twists and turns in the facility. She found herself getting lost but Luka clearly knew where she was going and it wasn't long before they were in the facility's giant garage that housed not only personal vehicles like Luka's motorcycle but several large plain black tinted SUVs for official use.

The idol handed the only helmet over to Haku as she had before, black with purple flames swooping along the sides which she pulled over her silvery white hair, wincing as she saw it yet again. Luka reached into a small compartment in the motorcycle's frame and drew out a pair of sleek black sunglasses and put them on (they perfectly matched her black leather pants, stiletto boots and black shirt that left her shoulders bare) then swung her leg over the seat. Haku slid onto the back of the motorcycle more slowly, still feeling a little weak from earlier but at least she was able to move on her own without much trouble. She wrapped her arms around Luka's middle. To hold on, of course…. That was all… Nothing else… her heart wasn't beating faster… was Luka's…? She thought maybe it was but couldn't tell for sure without feeling closer to the other woman's chest. The thought set her cheeks on fire and she was glad her face was pressed to Luka's back so the pink haired beauty couldn't see.

Luka kicked the engine over and hit a garage door control and a moment later they were speeding along the streets. Director Hatsune had told them not to go far, but Luka had that all figured out it seemed as she pulled them through a parking lot to a mall that was only a few minutes away. The roar of the engine and whipping of the wind while on the bike made it difficult to talk so they rode in silence, and they remained quiet as they entered the mall and Luka lead them to a secluded coffee shop corner. She took her sunglasses off and set them on the table in front of them before they sat together, placing the helmet Haku had been carrying down beside them.

They ordered lattes to have a reason to sit there but neither seemed interested in her drink as they sat there in more silence. Luka had caught her lower lip between her teeth in a worried sort of way as though debating with herself internally, but she somehow managed to look pretty even doing that. For her part Haku was content to wait the other woman out. Luka had obviously had a reason to get them away from the directors for this talk and she would work out what she wanted to say. As much as Haku wanted to know what it was she wouldn't force the pretty idol.

Sitting there waiting for the few minutes of silence Haku's red eyed gaze fell onto her silvery white hair, pulled forward over one shoulder and laying by her leg against her seat so she wouldn't sit on it. Her eyes tightened in a strained sort of expression. She had always been so fond of her hair… She idly twined some of it around a finger, staring at the silvery glint in the soft light of the coffee shop. It didn't really feel any differently than it ever had. Shouldn't it have felt different? Different texture, or… something?

She didn't have long to wait though. After a few minutes Luka looked up, deep blue eyes meeting curious red, and the pink haired beauty began to speak. For the first time since Haku had met her hours before she looked uncertain of herself, even a little trepidatious.

"It suits you you know." Luka offered that small private smile, and Haku blinked.

"No it doesn't."

"Yes it does." Luka argued gently. "I saw you both ways, remember? Right before it happened, I saw you. I… like this better." She reached out a hand tentatively to lift a few locks at the end of Haku's flowing hair. She hesitated a moment as she played with the strands idly and then sighed. "There's… something about you, Yowane-san-" She paused and sighed, "... Haku-chan." She tilted her head a bit but didn't break eye contact. "And I don't just mean how smart and beautiful you are…"

Haku broke eye contact at that, her cheeks blushing as she was unable to handle the baseless compliments. "I'm not…" She muttered much as she had earlier.

"You are!" Luka insisted firmly. "You keep denying it when someone says something, but you really and truly are."

"No, you are." Haku returned, causing Luka to pause for a moment, slightly taken aback. "Don't look at me like that, you must know you are! You're one of the top idols! You must have dozens of people telling you every day how gorgeous you are! I'm nothing like you, I'm so… so plain…"

"You are NOT plain!" Luka practically bit off the words and had to close her eyes to get a reign on herself. When she opened them she was much more calm but her deeply blue eyes blazed with intensity, that piercing gaze she had back and aimed at Haku. "I don't know what your life was like before, but it seems to me you worked very hard to avoid attention, to keep from rocking the boat as it were, am I right?" She didn't need Haku's hesitant nod for confirmation. "Haku-chan, I've made a career out of rocking the boat. I've always known exactly what I wanted and gone for it. I was an idol before I was a Vocaloid. It was all I ever wanted to do, and I pursued it with everything I had. I was in the top twenty before I ever learned what I truly was. I had a career, a future, everything all laid out before me…"

Haku watched as the other woman fell silent. She waited for a few moments before gently prompting her with a quiet, "What happened?"

"A Souldrinker got my parents." Luka whispered, and Haku felt her heart break a little for the pink haired beauty. The pain she had seen flash through her eyes so briefly before was back and not going away. Instinctively she reached out a comforting hand, but Luka pulled back, tucking her hands between her chair arms and her outer legs. "No, wait… please… let me get this out first." Haku nodded, a little pained at the rejection but understanding nonetheless.

Luka retrieved her hands and picked up her sunglasses and began toying with them in her hands, no doubt a nervous gesture as she continued, unable now to look up so she focused on the glasses. "The reason I sponsored you, Haku-chan, is because I find it easy to talk to you. Well… easier than anyone else, anyway. I… haven't had that for a very long time. Not since…" She swallowed hard and began twisting her fingers and thumbs along the edges of the sunglasses. "I had been seeing this guy for awhile. I wasn't really interested, but he… he was the son of the manager I had at the time, and I was given the distinct impression that if I didn't… well…"

Luka fell silent for a moment as the waitress came by to ask if they needed anything. On impulse Haku asked if they had any strawberry pocky, and the waitress nodded and went to retrieve some. Luka didn't seem to notice as she went on.

"Personal favors as business blackmail is a vile thing, but the idol world is… well… it can be vicious with competition, and at the time I didn't see a way out. So we went on a few dates, and I tried hard not to let on how completely uninterested I was. One night I had had a fight with my parents. They knew about the whole arrangement and were against it, told me… that I should fight it. I didn't think that was the smart thing to do. We fought, and I stormed out." Tears began to well up in her eyes and slid silently down her cheeks. "If I had known that fight would be our last words to each other…" She sniffed loudly and twisted her hands hard. The sunglasses creaked under the strain. "I mentioned on my date later that night that I'd fought with them. That was all, mentioned how angry I was, how angry they were, and how much simpler it would be if they weren't there to complicate matters. I… I didn't mean… but he took it as me wishing for it…" She squeezed her eyes shut, breaking into tears now. "It was him, Haku-chan! I didn't know!"

Haku gasped as she understood, a hand going to her mouth. "God, it was him wasn't it? He was the Souldrinker that got them?!"

Luka nodded at the revelation and her hands clenched convulsively. The sunglasses snapped in her hands and she yelped as a spot of blood beaded up on her left thumb where a sharp bit of plastic had poked her. She stared at it numbly as tears continued to fall down her face. "He hadn't fed in a long time he said later. He told me… he told me he did it for me. Because I had said… because I had said… my god Haku I killed them!"

Haku couldn't stand it anymore. She reached over and grabbed the idol by her shoulders and pulled her to her. "No! Luka no! It wasn't your fault! It wasn't! You can't think like that!"

Luka didn't resist this time, she just leaned her face into Haku's shoulder and sobbed. Haku let her get it out, and while Luka cried Haku leaned over to the table for a napkin. She took Luka's hand gently and dabbed the spot of blood off before wrapping the rest of the napkin around it and tucking it in so it would stay for a little bit. A few moments after she was done the waitress came by with a couple boxes of strawberry pocky. Haku took them with a thank you and opened one, and Luka finally noticed. She looked up with a tear streaked face and Haku smiled and stuck one of the cream biscuits in her idol's mouth. Luka blinkblinked in surprised then nibbled on it with a muttered, "Strawberry is my favorite…"

Haku giggled. "Mine too." She retrieved another napkin and began to dab at the other woman's eyes and cheeks. Luka seemed unwilling to part with her pocky now that she had it and it took a great bit of arm waving and tangling for Haku to get at her face, and after a moment they both broke down in giggles, Luka's sounding a bit muffled from her earlier tears but still there. Then Luka leaned back against Haku once more with a sigh.

"See? This is what I mean. You're not only beautiful and smart, you make me feel at ease." Haku opened her mouth to object but Luka shot her such a look that she closed her mouth again without saying anything. Lukas continued. "Maybe it's selfish of me, but when I realized I was warming up to you and then you asked me to stay with such a heart wrenching need… well I… I decided then that I had to find some way to keep you around so I could have you close." She blushed furiously but went on. "I don't know what's going on between us yet, I've never really… I mean I... " She swallowed hard and apparently couldn't explain so she changed what she was saying. "All I know is that I need you around, like all the time, until I figure this out. And if that's selfish of me I'm sorry."

"Then you don't care that I'm stronger than you? That's not why you sponsored me?" Haku asked quietly

"What? No!" Luka paused in the act of getting another pocky and jabbed Haku's cheek with it to make her point. "You're not stronger, you have a little higher potential. Not everyone reaches their maximum you know. But no, that had nothing to do with it. Even if you had been barely strong enough to to join I would have begged Director Hatsune on the basis of your intelligence alone." She smirked slightly and stuck the pocky in her mouth. "Not everyone can hack public networks just to play their favorite idol on train speakers you know."

Haku took another turn at a furious blush. "You knew?"

"I pieced it together." Luka's smirk around the pocky in her mouth widened.

Haku let out a forlorn sigh. She found it hard to meet Luka's gaze in turn now, but she could tell the idol had changed to subject away from her parents just to stop the tears and she needed the distraction now. But how did she say what the other woman wanted to hear without sounding crazy?

"Meguri-" She started.

"Luka." The idol interrupted as correction.

Haku blushed faintly. "Luka… I…" She really didn't want to talk about this but… the pink haired beauty bad opened up to her, she had to in return. She wouldn't feel right otherwise. She swallowed and just let it out in a rush, a much less graceful torrent of words than Luka had used. "My mother and father are prominent scientists and were never sound when I was a child, always at the lab or on projects abroad. It wasn't uncommon for me to go weeks or even months without ever seeing them. They saw that I was well provided for of course, I had maids and butlers and a trust fund to draw on whenever I wanted. They enrolled me in fancy private schools that mostly amounted to professional personal tutors and I had the best clothes and food and toys money could buy. I grew up extremely sheltered and bored to tears." She winced at her own words, thinking how this must sound to someone who lost their parents. "Maybe it sounds like a spoiled little rich girl complaining about nothing, but I… They. …" She squeezed her eyes shut feeling her own tears beginning to leak out of the corners of her eyes. "I didn't want any of that! I just wanted my parents! I wanted friends and a normal childhood!"

She felt Luka's hand on her arm and instinctively tensed up, but she didn't pull away, nor did she open her eyes. She could hear Luka's voice though, gentle and soft like crystal chimes. "It doesn't sound like that at all, Haku-chan. They locked you in a box for all intents and purposes. Maybe a pretty and expensive box, but still a box."

Haku kept her eyes shut. This next part was going to be the hardest to admit out loud. She wished she was anywhere else but here right now… well no, if she was somewhere else she wouldn't be with Luka… She pushed on. "I was so lonely all the time, all I had were my studies and what entertainment I could find for myself. So many idle hours to fill. Our mansion had a gym in it, a sauna, a game room… but those only took up so much time. I taught myself a lot of things; computer code, cellphone protocols, things I could look up online really. But… one day… when I was about fifteen… I stumbled on something that changed my life a little for the better…"

Against her will Haku's red eyes popped open and she stared right at Luka. She had to say this to her face, she couldn't just mutter this part. Luka wanted to hear this, had pressed to hear this, so she would tell her. "I found I could stream video services and music on my phone. That was right around the time I was really learning about the internet and really understanding how it worked. The very first thing I ever streamed on my phone… was you…"

Luka blinked in surprise, her blue eyes widening and her grip on the silver haired girl's arm tightening. "Me?"

Haku nodded. "It was… just after my birthday, and I had received a box from my parents. They didn't know anything about me and they usually missed holidays with me, but they always had a box sent to me with gifts. Most of the time they didn't know what to send since they never knew anything about me from being gone all the time. I think they just looked up what teenage girls liked in magazine articles and sent me things that seemed appropriate to them." She let out a sigh and shook her head, but kept eye contact, red eyes boring into blue. "I got several CDs that year, a lot of music I had never heard of, and it had a disc player. I listened to them a lot, and my favorite… was one called 'The Best of Megurine Luka.'" She flushed again. God would her face ever stop being on fire? Luka was a little flushed too it seemed. She finally rushed through the last of it. "I listened to that CD until it was worn out and wouldn't play anymore, and then I found I could stream your music on my phone. I found a video of you live the first time I ever streamed and I watched you on stage… you were… ARE… so beautiful, so radiant, so exotic, I… I felt things… I feel things… I don't understand… maybe I was infatuated but… ever since then when I was feeling the most alone at home with nothing to do… I would look up your videos, and in a way… it was like… having a friend almost… like you were always with me… god that sounds so creepy..."

By the time Haku trailed off she was crying, the tears were flowing silently down her cheeks, but she couldn't stop them. Luka looked at her for a long time and finally shook her head, her loose pink waves of locks shaking behind her. "Haku-chan… I've had stalkers before. I have stalkers now. Mostly men who say things similar to what you just did." She affected a gruff mocking male voice. "Oh Megurine-san, you're so lovely, so beautiful, I play your songs all the time, please I love you." She rolled her eyes to show what she thought of that, then leaned forward to give her charge a hug, much as Haku had done for her earlier. "What you just described, while similar in words, sounds absolutely nothing like that. It's not creepy, you WERE alone. For all intents and purposes you lost your parents just like I did, but even earlier in life. I'm glad my music could help you through it."

Luka held Haku through her tears in return as she had done for the idol earlier. Haku didn't know what to do so she just waited it out, but deep inside she felt… relief. Warmth. Happiness that Luka didn't think she was crazy. They stayed that way for a long time, then munched on their strawberry pocky together. After they were done and it seemed as though there was nothing left to say Luka got up.

"Come on, we should get back. I just… I wanted you to know what the Vocaloids meant to me, Haku-chan. I thought if you knew why I joined, why I fight the Souldrinkers, you might understand a little about how important it is."

Haku nodded her understanding, her purple bow holding her silvery white hair back bobbing behind her head, but she didn't respond. They threw their trash away, Luka wincing unhappily at her broken sunglasses as she added them to the bin, and then she paid for their drinks they had never touched and the pocky and the two left. Haku wondered if she should have paid or split with Luka, but the idol was so swift and purposeful in her movements, shifting from seats to bins to counter so gracefully and fluidly that Haku didn't know if she'd even had the chance to. The pink haired beauty just seemed to take it in stride as natural.

On their way out of the mall Haku spotted a designer boutique and stopped, snagging Luka's hand. Luka stopped and looked back, a curious expression on her face. "What is it?"

"Wait right here." Haku said and rushed into the boutique. She heard Luka call her name as she dashed through the doors, but she waited as Haku had asked.

Haku found what she was looking for quickly enough. All designer boutiques had things like handbags and scarves and the like. She found a pair of sunglasses that looked very similar to the ones Luka had been wearing on the rack of shades and took them down. They were a little sleeker in the lenses, a tiny bit wider in the frames, and they had a little glass gem set in either side by the hinges, but they were all black and looked right, so Haku took them to the counter and paid for them. She didn't notice the price at all until they were rung up, but it didn't bother her. Her trust fund had designer items charged to it all the time anyway. The cashier offered her a small smile and a thank you for shopping as she put the sunglasses carefully into a little paper bag and handed it to Haku, who took them with a "Thank you." and rushed a back out the doors.

"Sorry about that." Haku breathed as she walked back up to her idol who stood there with a puzzled look on her face.

"Haku-chan, what-"

Haku cut her off by holding the bag out with the designer logo on it. "I wanted to… to get you something…" Haku said haltingly. "You've been so kind to me, and you broke yours opening up to me, and…"

She trailed off as Luka slowly took the proffered bag and peered inside. She glanced up at Haku with a startled look and put her delicate hand in to take the sunglasses out. She studied them for a long time and looked at Haku. "Haku-chan, this must have been very expensive, I-"

"Please, Luka-chan." Haku said in earnest with big wide round red eyes, and the idol blinked in surprise once more. Then on impulse the pink haired beauty hooked the little bag handles around the pinky of the hand holding the sunglasses and reached her free hand up to brush at Haku's cheek, and this time neither of them pulled away embarrassed.

"Luka-chan…" Luka repeated, and that small private smile appeared on her lips. "That's the first time you…" She giggled and nodded. "Okay, Haku-chin." She said in acceptance, and the intimacy was palpable between them. Haku swallowed hard and though they both blushed it felt… comfortable. Then Luka looked at the sunglasses and moved her free hand to run a gentle thumb over the white glass gems on the hinges… and Haku's breath caught. The lighting was much better outside of the boutique then inside, and the way the light was glinting off them, she noticed what Luka already had.

Luka held the sunglasses up next to Haku's hair and tilted her head, her loose pink ponytail shifting behind her as it cascaded over one shoulder. "The diamonds match your hair, Haku-chin." She observed. "I'll think of you every time I wear them." Then she put them on, and put her hands on her hips, cocked a knee, and tilted her head with that small smile still on her lips. "How do I look?"

Haku swallowed so hard it hurt her her throat, but her voice was steady when she breathed her response, "Perfect…"

Luka giggled, a sound like the crystal chimes Haku had thought of earlier. She reached up and brushed her fingertips against Haku's cheek again. "Thank you, Haku-chin. Come on, let's get out of here. We have to get back."


	3. Vocaloid Academy Chapter 3

One side of the giant three car garage on the south side of the facility lifted open at the signal from Luka's control pad she had attached to the base of the handlebars of her sleek silver, black, and rose colored motorcycle and she guided the bike inside. Once they were in and the door began closing Haku could see from her vantage point on the back of the bike that they had a small reception waiting to greet them. She recognized Director Hatsune, with his short cropped teal military crew cut and square jaw, and his wife Doctor Hatsune, her middle years definitely not having marred her beauty. And between them stood a very pretty light blue haired girl with two side pony tails tied at the sides of her head with bowed black ribbons similar to the single purple one Haku wore to keep her own silver white hair back, only smaller. She wore dark blue expensive cut designer jeans similar to Haku's own black, and a grey silk blouse that seemed to cling in all the right ways.

Luka pulled her motorcycle over not far from their reception, kicked down the kickstand and cut the engine. She pulled off her black helmet with purple flames climbing the sides and hung it from one handle bar, and Haku removed her new black helmet with a silver sea spray pattern on it that Luka had picked up for her on the way out of the mall earlier and passed it forward. Luka took it without a glance as though she had been expected it and hung it on the opposite handle bar before carefully, almost reverently, removing her new diamond studded black designer sunglasses that Haku had bought for her. Those she placed gently in a hard plastic case that had come with them for safekeeping and slipped it into a pocket. Haku blinked at that, wondering why the idol didn't stow them in the small glove compartment in the bike's frame like she had her old ones, but she didn't say anything. Haku followed Luka's lead in dismounting the motorcycle and walking over to meet the trio.

"Welcome back, Megurine-san." Director Hatsune said with a nod to Luka, who nodded in return without responding, her long flowing pink hair pulled back into a loose ponytail bobbing behind her. The director shifted his gaze to Haku. "Yowane-san, allow me to introduce my daughter."

The pretty blue haired girl folded her hands before her and bowed forward toward Haku, her green eyes flicking over Haku's white hair and red eyes. "Hatsune Miku. I love your hair! Is it natural? How'd you get it to look sometimes white and sometimes silver like that?"

Haku wasn't sure if she was more put off by the question or the girl's bubbly personality and upbeat voice. She glanced sideways dubiously and saw Luka smirking. When Luka saw her looking her smirk widened and she nudged Haku gently but playfully with an elbow. "I told you it suits you."

Haku frowned slightly but changed it to a smile as she folded her own hands before herself and returned the bow. "Yowane Haku. I'm pleased to meet you, Hatsune-san. My hair and eyes were… changed… recently…"

Miku's eyes widened as she looked into Haku's red ones. "You're the survivor my parents mentioned?! The one with the super high potential?!" She barely waited for Haku's nod before going on, "That must have been so scary, I can't even imagine! How'd you survive? How'd you get away?!"

"Ehhh… Luka-chan saved me."

Luka blinked at the half truth lying full credit at her feet but there was no chance to see if she would have corrected Haku or not as Director Hatsune cut in right then. "Yowane-san, have you given further consideration to our offer?"

Haku glanced at Luka nervously and got one of her small private smiles in encouragement. It helped to lift Haku's spirits and she turned back to face the director. "I have, Director Hatsune, and..." She swallowed and went on trying to sound more confident than she felt. "I accept."

She wondered if she should have said more. It seemed like such a momentous decision should have more ceremony attached to it, but it seemed like that was all Director Hatsune wanted. He took Haku's hand and shook it firmly, his deep base voice reverberating off the concrete of the garage. "Very good. You've already had a medical exam, so now we will move on to the initial test. Then after that I will have Megurine-san and my daughter find you a suitable room here in the compound."

Miku gave a start as she was mentioned. She had been eyeing Luka intently ever since catching the small private smile the pink haired beauty had given Haku. She looked up at her father and have a nod. "Yes daddy." She said complacently.

Haku had caught the intent look Miku had directed at Luka but she was distracted a moment later as she looked back towards the director as he started them all moving into the facility. "Test?" She asked trying not to sound too nervous. She really had to get a handle on that. "What test? I only just got here."

Even though she had aimed the question at the director it was Doctor Hatsune who answer answered, her eyes as green as her daughter's sparkling in a kindly fashion. "Every new Vocaloid is tested periodically as they train to measure the pace of their development. We have a special sonic testing chamber we use for it."

"But I haven't started training yet, why test now? Won't I do poorly?" Haku asked.

"Of course you will!" Miku giggled which earned her a very level look from Luka which she affected not to notice.

"The first test is given to all new initiates first thing to see where they start at." Doctor Hatsune replied.

Now Haku understood. "To establish a baseline for future comparisons."

Doctor Hatsune nodded with a pleased smile and Miku blinked at her. "Quick one aren't you?"

"She is." Luka agreed, that small private smile back, earning her another intent stare from Miku.

The group rounded another corner in their walk through the facility and suddenly Haku recognized a hallway in the medical ward. They didn't go back to the exam room she had been in earlier but instead took a different hallway which lead to an observation room filled with computer banks and monitors with a door in the other end which stood open. Through it she could see a spherical room that was big enough for one person to move about from one side to the other in only a few steps. The door looked ordinary on this side but the other side was bowed so it would complete the sphere when closed. The walls were all paneled in a spongy looking light grey substance she didn't recognize.

"This," the director said indicating the room adjoining the observation room, "is a special type of padded material layered over vibration sensors specifically calibrated to detect and measure sonic frequencies well into the terahertz ranges. We use it for the testing."

"What do I do?" Haku asked, her hands pressed to her middle. The thought of being shut away inside there gave her butterflies in her stomach.

"You sing!" Miku said cheerfully, and Haku felt Luka's hand on come to rest reassuringly on her arm.

"That's the basics of it, yes." Doctor Hatsune said as she took a seat at one of the monitors. She reached up to a keyboard which seemed be etched directly into the console rather than a traditional detachable peripheral which Haku couldn't help but pause to admire the high tech setup. With a few keystrokes she booted the system as she talked and few other monitors came alive showing various camera angles of the spherical room. "You sing, or you dance, or both. The walls will pick up the vibrations of your sound pitch and the intensity of any sonic energies you may happen to produce, which will be relevant in the future. This test is just a baseline, I don't expect any sonics from you the first time."

"No one ever produces sonics the first few times, so don't worry when nothing happens." Luka said with another arm squeeze.

Haku looked around at everyone before nodding. She took a deep breath to steady herself when Director Hatsune gestured toward the door and she stepped inside the chamber. The door closed behind her with a soft click and she saw there was no other way out, not even a window or viewport. It was very unsettling to her.

A speaker from somewhere crackled to life and she heard Doctor Hatsune speak. "Okay Yowane-san, we're ready when you are."

"What do I sing?" She asked. She hoped again that she didn't sound to nervous.

"Anything you want. The more emotionally invested a Vocaloid is in a song the more powerful the result, so most of the time they pick whatever feels most appropriate to the situation, but that's training you'll get into later. This time just pick a song you feel strongly for and sing it."

"Uhm…. Just sing it out? Will you play the tune for me to sing to?"

"No, any outside sources of sound could skew the test results. Just imagine the tune in your head and sing it out, and if you feel like doing a few steps to it you can."

The speakers fell silent and Haku closed her eyes and stopped to think about it, standing there silent in the middle of this creepy testing chamber for a long few minutes. An emotional song… she had no idea what might be appropriate to this situation, but if they want wanted something emotional the only song that seemed to come to mind was the one she had been listening to earlier that evening, the one her idol had done the cover to, the one Luka had saved her life with. Keeping her eyes shut she imagined the music in her mind and began to sing Gishin'anki.

Asobasa ta shisen wa maadaa,

(That idle gaze of yours,)

Kumo no naka mitai you wonder,

(Like your head's just stuck in the clouds,)

Kanjirareru no wa sugoi,

(Sensing a menacing bloodthirstiness,)

Sakki you feel it kyoui

(All around you.)

She sang the verse slowly, just repeating the words in a singsong way at first, her voice quavering awkwardly. She felt extremely silly doing this, she had never sang in front of people before, but she tried to focus on the song, the feelings behind the words for her, and she imagined Luka's face as she sang.

Koko de wa sema sugiru kara,

(This place is suffocating us,)

Dokka e ito ka ima kara,

(so let's make a run for it now,)

Hamidasu kanjou no iro

(try and guess the color of the feelings)

Kimi ga ate te miro"

(I'm about to lay bare before you.)

Suddenly it felt like she really was singing to Luka. The quavering in her voice faded slowly away, and the singsong tone began to turn into an actual attempt to sing. She knew Luka was on the other side of that wall and could hear her. They all could, but she tried to only think about Luka.

Girigiri no kodou no taiou

(Barely able to keep your heart)

Oboreru karada no mirai

(From bursting out of your chest,)

Tsukiatari wa miatara nai

(You just can't deal with)

Kimi wa taerare nai

(Not knowing what comes next, can ya?)

Idaku no wa kyoufu? Kibou?

(Does holding me close terrify or tantalize?)

Mieru no wa donna moyou?

(How are you looking at this whole situation?)

Shinji tai toyuu omoi

(Do you have anything)

Kimi ni mada aru no kai?

(You still want to believe in?)

Her silvery voice was strong now, jubilant, clear like an ocean wave. She swayed a little bit to the music in her head, her hips popping ever so slightly side to side even though she didn't do any steps. She could feel the beat within herself and she swayed to it. She was singing for Luka now, thoughts of anyone else melted away, evaporated from consideration as the idol's face filled her mind's eye. Her feet had picked up the beat she was running through her head and tapped gently on the floor as she continued to sway, her white hair cascading down her back swaying in counterstep.

Sekai ga MAKE are mo kore mo FAKE

(A world full of fakes & forgeries)

Owari nai sei 'CUZ WE COULD PLAY THE GAME

(We could make something everlasting together)

NO MORE? WOW mo gake

(You're tapped out already? Keep fighting,)

Koko wa sou WONDERLAND '

(Cause this is our wonderland)

NIGHT AND DAYS itsuwari no yume

(A life spent deceiving yourself with petty fantasies…)

Osanaki me mayowa zu ni AWAKE

(Open your eyes! Snap out of it!)

No more ? wow

Sekai wa zettai na AMAZING WORLD

(This is an amazing world we live in!)

She could hear it. She really could hear the music now. Maybe they had turned the tune on for her after all. Or maybe she was just really getting into it and imagining it. Either way the music was ringing in her ears now.

Ikioi makase ni IN YOUR MOUTH

(Suddenly ready to start sputtering)  
Kotoba ga zurari narabi masu

(A bunch of weak-willed vagarities)  
Fureru kuuki no kiryuu ni

(Are you just trying to fill the space between us with a bunch of pointless)  
Shitasaki de ka masu

(With a bunch of pointless fluff?)  
Oboe ta no wa fuan? Iwakan?

(Just remembering that anxiety & unease?)  
Kokoro kara shinjiru YOU CAN'T

(You really believe you can't do anything, don't you?)  
Kubetsu no tsuka nai kuukan

(Can you really keep living)  
Kimi wa ikireru no kai?

(Without committing to something?)

She took a small step, and another. Her feet worked a small improvised pattern on the floor. Her arms reached out before her, then spread to the sides, then she curled one over her head and did a little spin with her snowy hair swirling about her. She wasn't sure what she was doing or why, but it felt right somehow. She couldn't hold still while singing to her idol.

Sekai ga MAKE namameka shii te

(Bewitching you with a new world for the two of us)  
Kitaru hametsu iza

(Let's get rid of the old one, come on,)  
What do you wanna break

NO MORE? WOW wameke

(Are you really at your limit?)

Koko wa sou WONDERLAND

(Cry out, this really is our own wonderland)  
ON YOUR WAY subete ni SUSPECT

(Suspicious of anyone & everyone,)  
Hadaka no me misueru unmei

(Eyes trying to read way too deep into your fate)

No more ? wow  
Sekai wa zettai na AMAZING WORLD

(This world is an amazing place to be)

She was sure she was making the dance up as she went along but she no longer cared. Luka's face held firm in her mind and she could hear the music, could feel the tempo. The beat ran through her, suffused her, powered her. She felt her jeans snap at every twist, every turn, her t-shirt swished with every spin.

Kogoe ta hifu no kanshoku

(Skin ice-cold to the touch,)  
Obie ta manazashi no iro

(A frightened gaze,)  
Kawai ta karada wa koko de

(A body gone dry, they're all waiting)  
Kimi no chi wo hoshi gatte iru

(For your lifeblood to start flowing again)

Sekai ga MAKE are mo kore mo FAKE

(A world full of fakes & forgeries)  
Owari nai sei 'CUZ WE COULD PLAY THE GAME

(We could make something everlasting together)  
No more ? wow

NO MORE? WOW mo gake

(You're tapped out already? Keep fighting,)  
Koko wa sou WONDERLAND

('Cause this is our wonderland)  
NIGHT AND DAYS itsuwari no yume

(A life spent deceiving yourself with petty fantasies…)  
Mayowa zu ni AWAKE

(Open your eyes! Snap out of it!)

No more ? wow

She could no longer tell where the music was coming from, no longer tell if it really mattered. Her body moved in ducks and arcs, her arms spinning then snapping back. She felt more as though she were ducking and weaving through the notes and the beat rather than simply dancing to a tune, as though they were sliding around and passed her as she wove her way through the music itself.

Genkai no seimei yo AGAIN

(You're really just gonna put your potential in a box?)  
Sekai ga MAKE namameka shii te

(Bewitching you with a new world for the two of us)  
Ki ta ru hametsu iza

(Let's get rid of the old one, come on,)  
what do you wanna break？

NO MORE? WOW wameke

(Are you really at your limit?)  
Koko wa sou kiseki

(Cry out this really is our own miracle)  
ON YOUR WAY subete ni SUSPECT

(Suspcious of anyone & everyone,)  
Hadaka no me misueru unmei

(Your eyes trying to read way too deep into your fate)  
No more wow  
Sekai wa zettai na AMAZING WORLD

(This world is an amazing place to be)

Oh wow, oh oh oh wow

Oh wow, oh oh oh wow

Oh wow, oh oh oh wow

Oh wow, oh oh oh wow

When the final words came she let her voice reach out, let her final hip pop twist around with her momentum in a snap, and she felt… something. A vibration, or a reverberation. A fraction of an instant after there was a sort of boom in the room and her red eyes popped open as the final notes faded away and she looked around for the source of the sound, yet as before she started singing there was nothing in the spherical testing chamber with her. A moment later the door burst open behind her as Luka rushed in followed closely by Miku. The pink haired beauty reached her first and threw her arms around Haku with a very uncharacteristic squeal of delight. "Haku-chin you were amazing! For a first time that was absolutely incredible!"

Miku didn't join the hug but she ran her hands along Haku's arm vigorously and her bright voice was as enthusiastic as ever. "You did it, Yowane-san! No one ever does it on their first try but you did! Amazing!"

"I did it?" Haku asked faintly. She was having a hard time thinking with Luka pressed against her. She smelled so good, like roses and floral soap, and her body was soft pressed against her. "I did what?"

"You produced a sonic energy wave!" Luka exclaimed. "Right at the end!"

Haku was bewildered. "I did?"

"It was a weak one," Director Hatsune said from the doorway. He was the tallest man Haku had ever seen and it was already getting crowded in the test chamber with the three girls in it so it was no wonder he didn't come all the way in. "Probably not even enough to make a Souldrinker hesitate, but the instruments don't lie. It was definitely there. Most intriguing. You're full of surprises, Yowane-san."

"It took me three tests before I made my first one." Miku confided, and Luka nodded the same for her.

Haku was stunned, she didn't know what to think. She looked around aimlessly and spotted her wide purple ribbon on the floor. The bow hadn't been tight enough to hold through the dance, or maybe not through the sonic energy burst. Was that what she had felt at the end? Luka followed her gaze and saw the ribbon. She bent to retrieve it and without saying anything or asking she shifted around behind Haku, lifting her long cascading white hair to get the ribbon in place and tied it for her. Miku had that intent look on her face again that Haku didn't understand but the director ushered them out of the test chamber and back into the observation room. Haku couldn't help but give a little shiver of relief once she was clear of the door back into the other room.

"Very surprising, Yowane-san." Doctor Hatsune said when they came through. "Would you like to see the recording?"

"Recording?" Haku asked. "I didn't know it was being recorded."

"We keep recordings as part of the test records." The doctor replied. "They also help with training. Would you like to see?"

Haku nodded and Doctor Hatsune tapped a few of the etched keys. One of the monitors changed to a digital video recording playback of herself from a few minutes ago by the time stamp. She watched herself on the video, arms wrapped nervously around her middle which she didn't remember doing, and head bowed with her eyes closed. A moment later her recorded self began to recite lyrics in the barest singsong tone into the empty quiet of the room. She winced at how she looked, and Luka saw and nudged her.

"Everyone is nervous the first time." Luka said.

"I look so… frightened." That was the thing that caught her the most off guard. She didn't think she had looked that bad, that scared. That's not how she wanted people to see her. She looked at Luka. "How do you stay so… confident? I've seen you perform, you never bat an eye."

"It takes practice, Haku-chin. It will get better over time."

"Some of us call it a stage presence." Miku chimed in. "You decide how you want to be seen when performing, and you construct a persona around that and display it while you sing, like donning a mask. Eventually your own personality acclimates to it, or the mask takes on features of your personality. Over time the two merge and you feel better about it all around."

"Stage presence…" Haku murmured as she watched herself. The recording got to the part where she started to move and suddenly the music was audible on the video. "So I wasn't imagining the music, you really did turn it on for me." She looked toward the doctor. "I thought you said it would skew the results."

"It would, and I didn't." Doctor Hatsune said, and Haku felt a chill run down her spine.

"Then where-?"

"You're doing it." The doctor answered the partial question.

Haku blinked. "I'm doing it?" She looked back at the video, her recorded self really getting into it now. Her movements were awkward and very obviously untrained in dance but just as plainly were heartfelt. "How is that possible?"

"Remember before when I said a Vocaloid's power isn't just in her voice? It's a resonance, an energy vibration. When a Vocaloid's power is manifest they can vibrate their own sonic energies in a number of ways. They can produce sound, they can make energy waves, and-" she gestured at Haku's recording. "They can even produce music. It's easier the more emotion is involved, which is why I told you to pick something that you felt strongly for, but to be honest audible music isn't very common the first time either, though not unheard of."

"I couldn't get music my first time, but I did on my second test." Miku said. "You really are amazing, Yowane-san."

"But I didn't do it on purpose." Haku objected as the recording came to an end, and then she saw it, right toward the final words. Her spin, her snap, and a flash of white light or energy in an arc out from her body that hit the wall and made a little sonic booming sound. Her recorded self opened her red eyes wide in startlement and a moment later the other two girls rushed into the camera's view. Doctor Hatsune ended the recording and the director's deep bass voice sounded behind her and she turned.

"On purpose or not this clearly shows your vast potential, Yowane-san. With training you will learn to control it. We'll begin tomorrow after you've had time to rest. It has been an eventful day for you and I'm sure you would like to get settled in. Tomorrow we will introduce you to your tutors and some of the other Vocaloids." Haku nodded uncertainty and the director motioned to the other girls. "Please find Yowane-san a room. I must address the board." He gestured to his wife and the doctor got up to follow him.

"Good job, Yowane-san." The doctor said on her way out with a smile for Haku who gave a weak thank you in return as the two departed.

"Well! Let's get going!" Miku said with her usual enthusiasm and spun toward the door, her light blue twintails whirling around her. The three of them made their way out of the medical ward and through a section of the facility Haku hadn't seen yet but she thought they were moving in the opposite direction of the garages. Haku and Luka walked along in silence as Miku pointed out various places of note for Haku's benefit.

"And there's the cafeteria, though it barely counts as one, there's no staff or anything just a few tables and vending machines but the seats are comfortable and the lighting is relaxing and I find it's a good place to read or unwind OH and there's the the locker rooms, the girl's room is a lot nicer than the boys room cuz there are a lot more female Vocaloids than male for some reason I know cuz I snuck in there to take a look once cuz I was curious and we have several private baths and showers in addition to the public bath but the public one has hot tub jets in it and once I turned them all on at the same time and flooded the hallway and OH LOOK there's the director's ward they have a lot of conference rooms in there for meetings and planning stuff and the like and it's all stuffy and boring in there and THERE'S the dorms, the wing splits in half for the men and the women's rooms-"

Haku lost track of the onslaught of words as Miku rushed ahead to the entryway to the dorms and rounded a corner. She looked to Luka who rolled her eyes.

"Is she always like that?" Haku asked.

"Always." Luka smirked. "But you get used to her. She really is a great person, and she's one of my Resonators besides, and beyond that we-" Luka cut off. She wasn't normally one to get embarrassed easily but for some reason she looked away at that, trying to cover it by making it appear as though she were looking for the blue haired girl's return.

Haku caught both the important word as well as the cover, but it seemed clear the idol didn't want to talk about whatever it was right then, so Haku asked the obvious question instead. "What do you mean, Resonator?"

Luka swung her blue eyes back to Haku and it seemed clear she knew that Haku had caught it and chosen not to ask, so she flashed that small private smile by way of thanks and answered the spoken question. "That will be gone into more in your training by whoever ends up tutoring you in that area, but basically every Vocaloid's sonic energies have a baseline resonance to them and some of us pair well with others when it comes to combining our sonics and some don't pair as well."

"Pairing?" Haku asked, the idea having never occurred to her. "When would you need to pair?"

"Sometimes pairing, or even grouping, can yield huge amounts of power. Think of it like when singing, multiple voices at once is louder and more pleasing when those singing are harmonizing together but if someone is off it sounds bad. In the same way if two Vocaloids try to take down a Souldrinker that's more powerful than either individually, if they combine they can manage it if they Resonate."

"So… wouldn't it always be better to Resonate?"

"Well… Resonating is hard." Luka tossed a thick strand of her cascading pink hair back over her shoulder with a casual flick of her wrist. "In the same way that people with lower voices harmonize better with other lower voices in singing, and higher with higher, so also do two Vocaloids of similar strengths and potentials Resonate better together. Also just like in singing, it takes both people doing all the work, so Resonating can get exhausting fast, and besides that if you don't hit the same frequencies and pitches and all that at the same time the result is bad. With sonic energies, conflicting chords can cause… explosive consequences. We call that Counter Resonance. Some of us have had to be hospitalized after a Counter Resonance."

Haku blinked at that and tilted her head. "So you can only Resonate with other high powered Vocaloids?"

"Well, you CAN Resonate with anyone close enough in strength to avoid a Counter Resonance, but there's a catch. For some reason that no one understands yet, when two or more Vocaloids add their strength together through Resonance or Multi Resonance it doesn't just add their power together. It's more like a percentage amount above what either of them could manage alone, which we call Voltage for ease of reference. Your potential aside, the amount of power you are capable of putting out is termed Voltage, and the closer in strength those involved in a Resonance are, the higher percentage of a Voltage increase that can be achieved." Luka had a lecturing tone ringing in her crystal voice, but it was a kind sort of lecturing and Haku was listening intently.

"Then it's possible to Resonate with anyone near you in power." Haku said, thinking she had it.

"Possible, yes. Beneficial… not always. Another factor is who your Resonators are. Also for some reason we haven't yet discovered, every Vocaloid can form a Resonance Bond with a couple of other Vocaloids. It varies how many, sometimes two or three, sometimes as many as five. When you form a Resonance Bond with another Vocaloid through enough performing together, they become one of your Resonators, and forming a Resonance with one of your Resonators gets that Voltage percentage up even higher than if you formed a Resonance with another Vocaloid of the same strength who was not one of your Resonators." Luka smiled as if it all made perfect sense, but Haku had a bewildered look on her face.

"So then… assuming I was as strong as you, if you and I formed a Resonance, or if Hatsune-san and I did, it wouldn't be as strong as if you and Hatsune-san did because she's one of your Resonators and I'm not, even though we're all close in potential." Haku blinkblinked rapidly and tilted her head, her long white hair swaying behind her causing her bow to bounce slightly.

"Exactly right!" Luka smiled that small private smile again and nodded.

Haku's face fell slightly. "Oh but… you two have been Vocaloids for a long time, you probably already have all your Resonators already…"

The disappointment on her face was palpable but Luka just smiled and winked. "Not yet we don't. I only have two and Miku has three, but neither of us have reached our maximum yet. When you do, you know it somehow deep inside, and we know we have more."

Haku's expression turned hopeful and Miku seemed to choose that moment to return from around the corner. Apparently she had heard some of the impromptu lesson because she skipped up cheerfully with her light blue side tails bouncing and added, "We're at the top of the food chain in terms of strength, and since forming Resonance with another Vocaloid is so strength dependant it's hard to find others on a similar enough level to us to avoid Counter Resonance." She smiled and offered a gentle arm pat to Haku. "Don't worry, Yowane-san, I'm positive we'll both form Resonance Bonds with you eventually."

Haku stared at the very genuine expression on the pretty blue haired girl's face and on impulse she blurted, "Haku is fine."

Miku blinked at her a moment then giggled. "Haku-chan! You can call me Miku!"

Haku smiled back, her red eyes sparkling happily, and she turned her head as she heard Luka giggle.

"You're so pretty when you smile, Haku-chin." The pink haired beauty said. "It's been a hard day I know, but I'm glad you can still smile after it all."

Miku looked from one of them to the other with that intent look again before announcing suddenly, "Come on, the list of rooms is posted on the board and I highlighted the available ones for you to pick from." She turned and skipped back down the hall to the corner turn into the dorms leaving the other two to follow behind.

The dorm board was in fact a large flat panel monitor embedded in the wall with touch screen capabilities, and again Haku couldn't help but admire the tech. A floor layout was displayed showing that they were in the east wing of the compound which was divided by the hallway they were in that ran the length of it with a couple of smaller side corridors running north to the girl's dorms and south to the boy's. Haku glanced down the corridor to see those side passages all shut with doors and none of the rooms opened into the main corridor. Looking back at the board she saw each room that was occupied was greyed out with a name printed on it to show who was using it. Luka's room was at the far end of the last hallway and Miku's was across that hall from it. Several rooms were open with a green highlighted "AVAILABLE" printed on them, and Haku noticed the one right next to Luka's was open. She pointed at it.

"Can… can I have that one…?" She tried hard not to blush but wasn't sure she succeeded. She kept her eyes straight ahead to try to avoid having it noticed, but again she wasn't sure she succeeded.

There was a pause from the other two and Haku could practically hear them exchange a glance between them before she heard Luka's voice answer quietly, "Yes, you can."

They showed her to the room, which was surprisingly spacious with a full sized canopied four poster bed in the far corner opposite the door, a tall standing wardrobe in it's adjacent corner, and a mirrored makeup stand opposite the door. The carpet was a soft lush pale red color and the wood of the wardrobe, makeup stand and bed frame were all dark cherry oak. The bed was unmade and there was no other furniture in the room, but that seemed a minor concern. There was a window set in the wall between the end of the bed and the makeup stand with a set of pretty white curtains to block view and some blackout panels drawn to the sides that could keep the light out. Haku looked around the room a bit before turning back to the other two.

"I'll need to go back to my parent's house and get some more of my things." She told them.

Luka nodded and gestured back the way they had come. "We can do that now if you'd like. Haku nodded and they all turned to head back to the garages.

As soon as they were walking back down the hallway once more Miku's bubbly onslaught of words renewed itself once more, only this time she directed them at Haku as they walked. Well, she walked. Luka seemed to stride in a gracefully feminine way that made Haku have an urge to look at the idol's hips or some reason she couldn't explain, an urge she had to fight as they moved through the corridors, and though Miku didn't actually skip she still seemed to somehow give the impression of bouncing along in her cutesy bubbly manner. The words washing over her were intense and Haku had to do her best not to go cross eyed at the verbal attack. Each sentence or question came right atop any answer Haku gave, making her wonder if Miku actually heard each one before asking the next, but the blue haired girl's green eyes were bright with mirth and curiosity so she must have absorbed it.

"You're almost as tall as Luka-chin, Haku-chan! How tall are you?!"

"Ehm… one hundred seventy two centimeters."

"Ohhhh, you're only a couple of centimeters shorter than she is! I'm one hundred sixty four centimeters! When's your birthday?!"

"The ehm, the thirtieth of September."

"Oh no we just missed it! Maybe we can throw you a belated party! My birthday is in a couple weeks, the fifteenth of November! Luka-chin's is on the very first of April! She's a big joke!" Miku giggled as Luka shot her a dirty look but it didn't slow the tide. "What's your blood type?"

"Blood type O…" Haku answered."

"I'm B, and Luka-chin is A!" Miku actually did make a small skip in her step then, swinging her arms and causing her side twintails to bounce. "What's your favorite color?!"

"Black…" Haku thought she was starting to feel a little faint at how fast the questions were coming.

"Where were you born?!"

Miku kept the questions up rapid fire all the way to the garage, pausing only briefly as they all piled into a big black SUV that Luka led them over to. Haku thought she might get a brief respite as she took the back middle seat but once Miku had belted herself into the front passenger spot she twisted herself around so she could keep the conversation going. Luka had a look on her face like she was trying very hard to keep from breaking into giggles at the nonstop trainwreck of question and answer. The idol kept her face foward out the window though once she had them moving, turning right after the garage door had opened to let them out and aiming back toward Haku's house. She apparently remembered just where it was because she took them straight to it without any issues, the drive seeming to take weeks because of Miku's incessant interrogation. Once Luka had pulled up out front of the small house Haku's parent's owned however and they walked up the path to the door and Haku had let them all inside she finally got relief from the onslaught as Miku shifted her bubbly comments from Haku herself to the house.

"Ooooh it's so cute! I want a house just like this! I didn't know you liked paintings, Haku-chan! These are very lovely, beautiful brush work on this seascape, it really makes the waves look like they're rolling! And that jungle cat, so fierce! Rawr!" She pawed in the air at a painting of a big black puma and giggled before skipping off down a hallway and turning through an open doorway. Her voice, never halting even as she moved, floated back down the hallway to the other two. "Ohmygosh this kitchen is super cute! I love the tile! Did the house come like this or did it have to be remodeled?! It doesn't look original."

Haku looked to Luka and the pink haired beauty rolled her eyes but she was still fighting her giggle. They turned and left Miku still chattering in the kitchen to walk back to Haku's bedroom. Haku considered what all she would need to bring with her. She could come back whenever she needed to obviously, the house wasn't going anywhere, but she would need more than the change of clothes she had brought before. She pulled a large suitcase with wheels from the closet and laid it on the bed before turning to her simple dresser. She had gotten most of her day to day clothes set neatly in it when Miku's exclamation from the doorway made them both turn to look.

"HAKU-CHIN! Your stuffed animals are soooooooo adorable!" She flung herself down on the top of Haku's bed and began to cuddle Haku's favorite stuffed tigress and she found herself smiling at the blue haired girl. She was so energetic, so genuine, it was hard to be put off for too long by her… vehement gushing? Haku couldn't come up with a word strong enough. "I'll pack them for you!" Miku declared, pulling another suitcase out of the closet and setting to work. Haku hadn't decided if she was going to take them or not but it seemed the decision had been made for her.

"I'll see to your linens." Luka offered, moving over toward the closet.

"Thank you." Haku replied, still eying Miku as the other girl seemed to do as much cuddling of the stuffed animals as she did packing them.

They were at it for the better part of an hour but in the end there really wasn't a lot she needed to bring beyond her personal things. The house still belonged to her parents and everything in it was fine right where it was. She certainly didn't need to pack housewares or furniture or anything like that, so Haku found herself getting back into the SUV after the three of them had loaded her few suitcases into the back and Luka had pulled down the back hatch to shut it, and they headed back to the Vocaloid Compound. That was when it really and truly hit her how much her life had changed. Something about packing up and moving seemed to really drive it home, and she felt a surreal sort of hazy moment as she reflected on the events of the past day. She didn't think she was bothered by any of it, it had all gone very well she thought, at least overall. She supposed she didn't have much of a choice in any of it really, not after discovering she was a Vocaloid, but she thought it was all good changes. She eyed the two girls in the front seats, and she felt a warm feeling spread through her tummy and chest. She'd never dreamed she would actually meet the Megurine Luka, but now that she had, and had met Miku as well, she found a sense of completion to her life she hadn't known she was missing before. Her first real friends, the first genuine connections she had made. She thought she would remember this moment for the rest of her life.


	4. Vocaloid Academy Chapter 4

"Haku-chan! Wake up!"

Sunlight was streaming through her window and into her eyes, and when Haku's lids fluttered open the light glinted off her red eyes in a startling way. Miku took a step back involuntarily, then gave a sheepish look and stepped up to the bedside again.

"Sorry, I wasn't expecting…" She trailed off before letting out a nervous giggle and bending to lift a small lap tray onto the bed. "Good morning, Haku-chan! I thought you might be hungry from sleeping so late so I brought you something to eat. I knocked but there was no answer so I let myself in."

Haku yawned and rubbed at her eyes in a sleepy way that was far more cutesy than she was really aware of being. Her plain white nightgown was modest enough she thought as she pushed the covers back a little bit to sit up. Then she blinked a few times and looked at the tray. It had a sweet bean bun and some red juice of some sort. She blinked again and tilted her head up at Miku, who gave another giggle.

"I told you, the cafeteria sucks, sorry. If you want something else, we could go out somewhere before you start training." She smiled pleasantly and sat on the very edge of the bed.

"No, that's okay, thank you." Haku glanced at the alarm clock and saw it was actually fairly late in the morning. Had she really slept so long? That wasn't like her. She picked up the juice and took a sip to wet her throat. It was cranberry and cherry it seemed. As she sipped at it she spotted a folded piece of paper by the plate on the tray and picked it up. "What's this?"

Miku glanced at it before looking up at Haku's face. "Luka-chan had to meet her manager early this morning and then we detected a Souldrinker in her area after, so she's been out all morning. She left you a note about it."

"Left me a note…? That's... " Haku wasn't sure what to think of that so she unfolded the paper. Luka's handwriting was graceful and swooping in a way that, to Haku at least, reflected on the idol's confident femininity.

"Haku-chin, I'm sorry I'm not there to help you start your first day of training. I really wanted to be, but I have a meeting with my manager this morning about a show coming up that I can't miss. Miku said she'd look after you today though so you shouldn't have anything to worry about, and I promise I'll help you practice tonight when I get back. Do your best!

-Megurine Luka"

Haku blinked at the paper and read it again, scanning the words as though she might find more. She wasn't going to see her all day…

"Cheer up!" Miku said brightly. "I'll make sure everything goes well for you today."

Haku smiled faintly and set the paper and her juice down. Why was she so… disappointed? Maybe she was just star struck over the beautiful idol. "So you agreed to help me around today then?"

Miku nodded. "You were so tired last night after the crazy day you had, and probably still a little drained from the souldrinker attack, that you fell asleep almost as soon as you layed down." She let out a pretty little giggle. "We barely managed to wake you up and prod you into the bathroom to change! After you were asleep we went to my room and talked for awhile."

When she fell silent Haku blinked and prompted her. "Talked about what?"

Miku blinked back. "About you mostly, silly. It's not like we get a new Vocaloid every day, or even one so strong." When Haku's eyes got wide and round again Miku added, "Training is… hard. I was the first Vocaloid of our organization and it was a long time before I really and truly started coming into my power, and I haven't even reached my potential yet. But even beyond that, Luka was… concerned about you. I think she feels partly responsible for your almost… I mean when the souldrinker nearly…" She trailed off.

Haku shook her head. "It wasn't her fault!" She protested.

Miku shrugged one shoulder, bouncing a light blue side ponytail. "She feels like it was, since she was the one that had been hunting the creature that… almost got you."

The girls fell silent for a long few moments and Haku nibbled on her sweet bean bun. She really didn't want Luka to feel responsible, she hadn't almost failed, she had saved Haku's life as far as Haku was concerned. She'd have to make her see that later somehow.

Miku let the silvery white haired girl eat her bun in silence for a few moments, an uncharacteristically introspective moment descending upon her. Haku nibbled and watched her slip off the bed's edge and walk over to the dresser. Haku hadn't had time unpack much so the dresser was empty still, the majority of her things still in the few suitcases stacked beside the tall wardrobe, but she had a change of clothes and a few ribbons on the dresser top. Miku picked up a couple of the ribbons, dark blue with black edges, and fiddled with them. Her own thin bows on her side twintails were all black.

"I like your ribbons, Haku-chan. Where do you get them?"

Haku swallowed the last bite of her bun and picked up her juice again. "There's a few designer stores I know near the house my parents let me use."

Miku blinked and tilted her head. "You'll have to stay here now that you've moved here you know, to be a Vocaloid. It's a rule."

Haku nodded. "I know."

"And that's ok with you? Moving away from your parents?"

Haku stared into her juice for a moment and right then on the spot decided now was a good time to start practicing that stage presence that Miku had mentioned before. She very carefully put a serene expression on her face and composed herself before she looked up. "My parent's and I aren't close." There, a very neutral response, and her voice hadn't quavered at all. Well… almost at all.

Miku nodded and put the ribbons down, seeing that Haku was done with her small breakfast. "Come on, we should get going. I'll let you get dressed." The door shut with a soft click behind her as she left.

Haku set the tray aside and slid out of bed, pulling her nightgown off over her head. She glanced at herself in the stand mirror briefly, her bare skin visible from head to toe. She really was paler than she had been… her skin looked as soft as it always had, and her hair didn't feel any different to the touch, but… it was like a different person was staring back at her. Luka said the silvery white hair and red eyes suited her, but… she didn't know if she would ever get used to it.

She pulled her spare jeans and white designer t-shirt on quickly after freshening up, tied her long flowing white hair back with black bow, and then joined Miku in the hallway. She had her phone out and was tapping at it, but she shut the screen off when Haku came out. "Ready? We're off to your dancing lesson first."

"Dancing lesson?"

Miku nodded as she led them down the hall out of the dorms and turned them toward the north wing of the compound where all the training facilities were. "A Vocaloid's power comes from song and dance. You need both."

It sounded a little silly to Haku but she supposed Miku knew what she was talking about. There were a few other people in the corridors as they walked through them, several girls and a few guys that Haku saw going about their business. Other Vocaloids she supposed, but moving with a purpose. A few gave nods and brief greetings to Miku, and Miku returned them but didn't stop to talk. The room she lead them to in the north wing was set up like a dance studio but with padded floors and walls, and there was someone waiting for them. A tall person with a dancer's build for certain, with long sandy blond hair and soft features, but… not exactly feminine. Not masculine either. Haku blinked in confusion and glanced at Miku. The light blue haired girl shrugged at the silent question then walked right up to the person and made introductions.

"Haku-chan, this is Hibiki Makoto, our dance instructor and the best out there." She smiled and turned to Makoto. "Hibiki-sensei, this is Yowane Haku. She just joined yesterday."

Makoto gave a small bend at the waist and smiled a smile that spoke of barely contained mischief. "Yes, so I've heard." There was a faint note of amusement in the words. "Hello, Yowane-san. It's a pleasure to meet you." Even Makoto's voice was neither high nor low, a solid tenor that gave no hints. "I will be your dance instructor."

Haku didn't want to be rude so she ducked her head at the greeting. "Pleased to meat you, Hibiki-sensei." She thought she should say more but didn't know what to say, so she affected that outwardly serene facade she had used earlier that had seemed to work so well.

Apparently Makoto didn't expect anything else and began a slow circuit around Haku, looking her up and down from every angle as Miku walked over to a seat against one wall and sat down, taking out her phone and crossing one knee over the other. "Mmm, quite lovely, quite lovely indeed. You truly have a dancer's grace about you, and your serene bearing combined with those depthless red eyes gives you an air of exotic mystery. Yes, very good."

Haku couldn't stop a slight flush at what she thought were baseless compliments, but when she glanced at Miku the pretty light blue haired girl was nodding thoughtfully. She flashed a smile when she caught Haku's gaze.

"Now!" Makoto said upon coming full circuit. "Have you ever had any formal dancing lessons before?"

Haku blinked at the question. "Uh, no, Hibiki-sensei."

"Good, good. That's very good. It means I do not have to break you of any bad habits. This will not be like any dancing you have ever tried before. Are you ready?"

Haku looked around the dance studio which was empty but for the three of them. "Uhm. Just me? Isn't this a class?"

The amusement in Makoto's tenor voice deepened. "Oh my, no. This is not a class, this is an instruction lesson. A class is for many mindless automatons absorbing the same information by rote. I am instructing you in an art form, one that will save your life some day in the not too distant future. Now, I will ask one last time." Suddenly the amusement was gone and Makoto's face grew deadly serious. "Are you ready?"

Haku tensed, not sure what to expect. "Y-Yes, Hibiki-sensei."

"Good." Makoto affected a dance pose, the right side of the body straight from heel to shoulder, the left knee cocked slightly to the side, right hand on right hip, left elbow out parallel to the floor and bent with all five fingers of the left hand splayed in front of the face. "Begin."

Haku watched the pose, studying it for a long moment or two, and waited. For what, she wasn't sure, but if this was a lesson shouldn't they do more than stand there? Finally she thought maybe Makoto was waiting for her to emulate the stance, so she attempted to strike the same pose. She glanced at herself downward and thought she had it, but Makoto kept standing there, staring at her like it was some sort of pose off. She felt ridiculous. After another few moments she glanced to the side. As the room was set up like a dance studio, there were mirrors on opposite ends of the room so you could see what you were doing, and she glanced at herself in one and saw her mistake. Her feet weren't pointed right. She corrected the pose and that seemed to bring her instructor back to life.

"Good. Now, arms out, step forward, and counter."

She blinked as she tried to absorb what was said, then watched like a deer caught in headlights as Makoto did exactly as as stated, arms going out for a step forward, then one hand flashing forward while at the same time making a soft almost inaudible hum deep in the throat. The dance move was seamless, fluid, graceful, there was a flash of faintly tinted purple light and Haku heard the tiniest reverberation in the air at the same instant she felt some sort of buffeting force against her shoulder. It wasn't hard, it didn't hurt, but it took her balance from her and she stumbled backward out of her pose.

Makoto completed the movement and drew back up into the starting position. "Reset."

Haku felt herself growing frustrated. What was expected of her? If this was a lesson, why wasn't there any actual instructing? "What am I supposed to do?"

"I told you. Reset."

Haku glowered and took up the starting pose again, managing it on the first try this time.

"Good. Now, arms out, step forward, and counter."

She tried to emulate the step she had seen Makoto do at the same time, but the same result occurred and she wound up sitting on her rear as the buffeting force following the reverberation again took her balance from her and she lost her feet from mid step.

Again Makoto completed the motion and resumed the starting pose. "Reset." That pose never wavered, that tenor a carefully neutral serious tone, no anger or disappointment in it at all.

Haku got to her feet, an annoyed look coming over her face. She didn't want to be rude but she he didn't understand. "You aren't explaining anything, you're just telling me to do things I don't know how to do. How can I do them if you don't tell me how?"

"Being a Vocaloid is not something you are told how to be, it is something you are." Makoto's voice was serious, but patient. "I am not teaching you to be a Vocaloid, you already are a Vocaloid. My job is to help you bring it out of yourself. A famous sculptor once said that he didn't decide what to carve ahead of time, that each sculpture he carved was already there inside the stone waiting to be revealed, and all he did was remove the excess pieces. That is what I am doing with you. You already ARE a Vocaloid, Yowane-san. I'm just helping you to remove the excess bits. Now, reset."

Haku closed her eyes for a long moment and composed herself, pulling the serenity she was working on developing over herself like a blanket. When she opened her red eyes again she was all calm determination. She took the pose again, and emulated the motions Makoto did again. And again. And again. They were at it for a very long while. She lost track of time, but every time she was knocked down or pushed back, she took a deep breath and reset as instructed until finally at last it happened.

She was focusing on the words, the things she had been told. She already WAS a Vocaloid. A Vocaloid's power came from their voice as well as their body. At last she realized her mistake. She hadn't been emulating the hum. She got to her feet from the last rebuff, closed her eyes, and took a deep breath. She thought back to the previous day, the music she had sworn that was coming from somewhere else that was actually coming from her. She reached deep within herself, looking, searching… and found it, the feeling she had had when she'd done it. Luka's face bloomed within her mind's eye as it had then, and somehow she knew without a doubt she had it.

Opening her eyes, Haku took the stance in a single fluid motion. Something in the way she held herself, or the look in her red eyes, or something else entirely, made Miku blink and hold her phone up, but Haku was completely focused on Makoto.

"Arms out, step forward, and counter."

They moved completely in synch, the same movements at precisely the same times, at precisely the same angles. Haku knew before it even happened that she had it, in the same way an athlete making a winning shot knows it's already in before the goal is even reached. Their arms extended, fingers out, and Haku flicked her wrist and released a musical note from her throat at the same moment as Makoto.

"Faaaaaaa!" The note rang loud and clear in the room like an ocean wave breaking and a flash of white light came from her fingertips. Haku could feel the sonic energy reverberating in her body in the instant it rushed out of her, somehow channeled through her outstretched hand. There was a double sonic boom in the room, Haku's louder than Makoto's small buffets as it dwarfed it and rushed on.

Makoto was a fantastic teacher it seemed, having never lost focus on the student despite her many failures. An instant was all it took for Haku's reverberation but an instant was all that Makoto needed. That resonating hum from deep in the throat changed pitch as Makoto shifted fluidly to another pose even as Haku finished hers, and another flash of faintly purple light appeared, exactly the same intensity that Haku had formed. There was another soft boom in the room as the second resonance met the rushing wave from Haku. There was what felt like a brief wind shear and Haku had to step back from the force but no more, using the momentum of the step to reset.

The entire exchange was over in the space of heartbeats, less maybe. Makoto held the new pose for a moment or two before dropping it all together, the amused note coming back into that tenor voice. "Good! Most excellent! I had heard that you pick things up quickly, Yowane-san, but that was truly exceptional! Well done!"

Haku blinked, "What? Quickly? We were at it for… for…?" She blinked and glanced up at a clock on the wall. It… had only been about an hour. It felt like they'd been working for the entire afternoon. Haku noted with a degree of shame that she was perspiring and she hurriedly dropped her arms. Designer tees and jeans were not meant for working out in.

Makoto did laugh then, a rich sound that still gave no hint as to their disposition. "We are Vocaloids, Yowane-san. We deal in sound waves. We do everything fast."

Miku spoke for the first time since entering the room from her seat, which she was perched intently on the very edge of. "You really are incredible, Haku-chan. It may not seem like much to you, but not many manage what you did in so short a time. Me, Luka-chan, Gumi-chan, Teto-chan, I think that's it."

Haku blinked again at the compliments, they really were a very friendly sort, She supposed though if their lives depended on each other it made sense. As Makoto had said, Vocaloids do everything fast. That must include feelings and living. Wait, trusting their lives…?

"Hibiki-sensei, there's one thing I don't understand." Haku said with a dubious look. "You said my life will depend on this some day soon. How is that?"

Makoto stood there staring at Haku for a long moment or two before turning to Miku. "Hatsune-san, would you be so good as to assist me in a brief demonstration? I believe Yowane-san is the practical sort, and will behave better if she sees it for herself." That amused smirk was back.

Miku nodded and bounced to her feet, her light blue side tails bobbing about as she practically skipped over to a space a few paces off from Makoto. She took up the same pose she had been watching them practice and waited.

Makoto did the same facing her. "Thirty seconds, half turns only. We don't want to catch Yowane-san in the crossfire." That expression changed to seriousness again. "Begin."

And then they began to dance. Haku had to step back from the buffeting forces of sonic vibrations, and even that was humbling as she had just heard them set limiting terms for a display match only. They never grew closer to eachother than they started, simply turning steps in place, arms arcing out and back, hips popping and twisting, legs snapping back and forth. Makoto continued that same hum deep in the throat but changed pitch rapidly with every faintly purple tinted flash of light, and Miku simply sang softly up and down the musical scale causing her own faintly blue flashes. It still made a lovely harmony but it was simplistic to the purpose. To anyone else Haku knew it just looked like two people dancing and humming, but to Haku's red eyes it was a battle. Even though they never touched, never grew closer, every hip pop, foot kick and arm wave aimed or flicked out at the other one and created a flash of light and accompanying soft booming noise, which was up to the other person to counter by matching pitch and tone so the sonic vibrations melted each other away like two ripples in a pond from pebbles being dropped in met and canceled out. Just like that pond surface however, there were waves, and that was what made Haku step back. It was a battle as surely as any real fight, a show match for her benefit. Suddenly the dance studio took on a whole new light to her, the padded floors and walls making a lot more sense.

Those thirty seconds took an eternity as Haku watched the flashes and booms, watched the flawlessly graceful dance steps of the other two as they stepped, pivoted, bent, tipped, and pirouetted improvising every step, completely in synch but not mirroring each other's moves at all. And suddenly she saw it, could understand how they were countering each other. By the end they stopped, resuming their starting pose, waited for a brief heartbeat, then relaxed. Both were smiling as though they had just had a fun little exercise and Haku could only gaze on in surprise.

They turned to Haku and she couldn't help but clap as though having watched a performance, which in a way she realized she had. Makoto's head tilted, that smile still in place, and raised a questioning eyebrow. "Do you understand now, Yowane-san?"

"Yes, seeing it helped me connect what Luka-chan was saying yesterday, and what Miku-chan told me earlier. Song and dance. The voice channels, the body directs. I could see it, every time one of you moved, every motion had a direction toward the other in some fashion; a hand, a foot, a hip, an elbow, no matter which way you were facing."

Miku laughed with delight and clapped her hands together. "Yes! You got it!"

"So very quick indeed. No matter what you think Yowane-san, you really are a natural. You asked earlier why I didn't explain anything? That, what you just said, is exactly why. Vocaloids function on emotion and instinct, on sound and body. The music does not sustain you, it suffuses you, it IS you. Your body is the conduit, it lets it out, it tells you where to step and how to move, not you it. Your mind is only the focus, it directs it. Were Hatsune-san and I to do that exact same demonstration a second time, it would look completely different, yet the result would be the same. Instinct and emotion are the guides. You do not need to memorize dance steps, you will feel it, you will know how to move when it is time to move. That is how a Vocaloid performs, how a Vocaloid fights! This-" Makoto struck the earlier dance pose. "-is the Odoru no Budo!"

Miku struck the same pose. "The Martial Art of Dancing!"

They resumed their relaxed stances and Makoto peered at Haku. "Do you see now, Yowane-san?"

Haku was nodding as Makoto was talking. "Yes, yes I think I do. May I try again?"

Makoto's head shook but the smile widened. "So eager, so vibrant! No, Yowane-san, I am afraid our lesson is over for today."

Haku's eyes widened. "Over? We've only been here for hour! I know I can-" She cut off abruptly as her stomach growled loudly and she felt her cheeks heating in embarrassment.

Makoto laughed again and waved a hand in the air. "I understand your eagerness, Yowane-san, and believe me it would give me no better pleasure than to continue to mold you. Alas no, I have been given… strict instruction not to push you too hard your first day." Was that a quick flicker of a glance in Miku's direction? "In any case, I understand you are still recovering from an ordeal yesterday? It may not seem like it just now, but a Vocaloid's powers do tax the body, just like any exercise. Moreso. We will continue tomorrow. Perhaps a shower and a change of clothing, and tomorrow maybe something more suitable for working in?" That smile widened even further and Haku hunched her shoulders forward in an attempt to hide herself. Designer clothes really weren't good for this.

"Yes, Hibiki-sensei."

"Very good. You truly are a natural Yowane-san. You will pick this up in no time, I can promise you."

They gave each other slight bows of respect and Haku let Miku lead her from the room. They proceeded down the corridors and Miku glanced at Haku. "So, lunch or bath first?"

Haku's tummy gurgled again but she was extremely conscious of her clothing at the moment and she winced. "Bath I think, but… Is there… something else I could change into? This… was the only spare change of clothes I brought." The serenity she had been practicing was conspicuously hard to draw on all of a sudden.

Miku giggled and nodded, "I'm sure I have something that would fit you." She eyed Haku up and down as they walked. "You look a little bigger in the chest than me, but I think we're about the same size otherwise. You can borrow something of mine. Come on."

Haku let herself be led to Miku's room trying not to blush too furiously. Where was that serenity she'd had? As it turned out the only things Miku had that looked like they would fit her were a couple of loose silk blouses and a few skirts that stopped at the knees. Haku picked a black silk outfit that consisted of a blouse with a silver rosebud on the left side and a black skirt with a pattern of silver rose vines climbing the hem and up the sides, thinking that Miku must shop at similar designer stores that Haku did. Miku selected a black skirt and dark purple silk blouse for herself with a matching small hand bag. Haku stopped in her room to swap out her purple bow for a silver one with black lace edges. Then she grabbed her shower things she had packed and they proceeded to the bathrooms.

Miku hadn't been kidding the previous night when she mentioned the giant tub with jets in it. They got towels, stripped, and made their way into the wash area with benches and their soaps and body washes. They didn't talk much while they soaped up and rinsed off, getting the perspiration from the exercise off and cleaning up nicely. Then they shifted to soak in the giant tub for a little bit. Haku sank up to her neck partially as a relief for being in the water but also in embarrassment. She had never been comfortable being exposed in front of others, even in so innocuous a setting as this. Miku on the other hand took a brief dunk and then sat up on the edge of the rail to air dry with just her legs in the water. Haku got an eyeful of the pretty light blue haired girl purely on accident and flushed horribly then turned her head away sinking further down into the water up to her chin. Miku didn't seem to notice.

"Would you like to meet some of the other Vocaloids next or work on some singing practice?" Miku asked once they were settled. "I promise the singing is much easier." She giggled a little causing ripples of mirth to roll down her bare form, and Haku tried not to look.

"Singing sounds nice…" Haku mumbled into the water making little bubbles.

Miku saw this and giggled again. "It's much easier but just as important."

"Who will be teaching me?" Haku wanted to know.

"Anyone can really, but I will be today!" Miku answered cheerfully, then smiled slyly. "Maybe we can get Luka-chan to tomorrow, hmmmm?"

Haku's flush deepened and she elected not to respond to that, not really understanding herself why she was blushing. Miku just laughed and turned to slide out of the giant tub. Haku would have liked to have stayed and soaked in the warm water for longer but she supposed she'd already slept away most of the morning and and shouldn't waste anymore time.

They dressed then headed back to their rooms briefly to put away their used things and get ready to leave, and in Haku's room they stopped as Miku looked Haku up and down. "Wow, Haku-chan, that outfit really becomes you."

Haku blinked down at herself. "You really think so?" She fiddled with the silk blouse a bit thinking it clung to her figure in ways she wasn't used to, wondering if it looked as good on her as it did in on Miku.

"Definitely. Want to keep it? It never looked quite right on me."

Haku shook her head, "Oh no, I couldn't, it's too nice."

"No, insist! It's a gift." She smiled brightly.

"Th-thank you…" Haku murmured, smoothing the skirt at her hips self consciously. After a moment she had a notion and turned to her dresser to retrieve the ribbons Miku had been admiring earlier, the dark blue with black edges. She pushed them into Miku's hands. "Here, then I insist you take these as a gift."

Miku tried to refuse, "Oh no, I didn't do it for anything back!"

Haku refused to take them back and curled her fingers around the other girl's to closed Miku's hands around them. "I know, but I want to. Please?"

Miku glanced at them and then giggled again. "Thank you, Haku-chan." They smiled and left the room. "The best place to sing is in the outer courtyard, there's a tree I like to sit beside on the other side of the garages." Haku nodded and they made their way outside, passing people on the way as before. A few seemed curious about the new snowy white haired girl but they were obviously on their way somewhere and no one stopped them.

Once outside Miku found her spot by the tree and led them to it. It was a little chilly out with the season just starting to really turn but it wasn't too bad. Haku liked it best when the weather was just slightly cool like it was now, and she turned her face up towards a brief breeze that gusted passed. The grounds seemed well maintained and clean and Haku only had to brush a twig off the bench beside the tree before sitting, adjusting the skirt so she stayed decent. Miku sat on the back of the bench with her feet on the seat and did the same, then flicked her light blue side ponytails back over her shoulders. Haku settled her white locks over her shoulder into her lap to keep her hair from trailing on the ground, tightening her silver and black bow behind her head.

"Ok, Haku-chan, harmonize with me." Miku said, sitting up a little straighter and forming a little 'o' with her mouth. "Huuuuuuuuuuu."

It was a low note and Haku pursed her lips. "Huuuuuuuuuuu."

It matched exactly and some sort of vibration pulsed through her, and Haku blinked in surprise, but Miku giggled. "Did you feel that?"

Haku nodded. "Like when you sing to the radio and you can just feel it that you hit the same note, only way more intensely so."

Miku nodded. "That's the beginning of forming a Resonance. If we tried we probably could, but because you're still untrained the chance of a Counter Resonance occurring is high."

"So how do we avoid it?"

Mike smiled. "Just harmonize, nothing more. There are additional steps to forming the Resonance, so if we don't take them it won't happen. Just harmonize with me."

Haku nodded and Miku struck another note, which she matched. They spent about an hour sitting on the bench harmonizing up and down the musical scale, basic singing exercises anyone might do when training their voice, Miku smiling all the while and Haku having forgotten about her earlier hunger. This was much more interesting and she could always get something later. Besides, it was fun. She no longer felt silly. Maybe it was the atmosphere of the Vocaloid Compound, or maybe it was Miku being so nice, but Haku felt at ease for the first time in as long as she could remember really. She had never dreamed her dull dreary life could change so abruptly and drastically as it had in the past day, but she thought if she could do it over and avoid it, she wouldn't change a thing. This was so much better, even with the risks involved. She glanced at her white hair puddled in her lap. Even with the price she had paid. Then she glanced at Miku's kind face, and thought of Luka. Perhaps she had gained more than she'd lost. Vocaloids do everything fast, after all.

After some time had passed they fell silent for a moment and Miku tilted her head a bit with an inquisitive look on her face. "You have a beautiful voice, Haku-chan."

Haku felt her cheeks heat a little bit. "No… not really." Compliments made her uncomfortable, she never felt like she really deserved the praise. It was hard being told how quick she was when it all seemed so obvious to her, but this was something else all together.

""No you really do." Miku insisted with a smile. "Have you ever thought about a singing career?"

"What?!" Haku shook her head. "No! Being up in front of all those people?" She shivered at the thought.

"It's not so bad, you can barely see the crowd sometimes." Miku's voice took on a wistful note and she gazed off at nothing for a few moments. "The atmosphere, the lights, the joy of singing…"

Haku watched as her friend's expression turned reminiscent, and though she found it curious she didn't say anything. Whether it was simply the blue haired girl's memorable expression or the fact that a beam of sunlight filtering through the trees from above was suddenly framing her in a very picturesque way she couldn't have said but Haku was suddenly struck by just how pretty her friend was; her face so sweet, her hair so silky, her countenance so poised. Then she was taken aback a moment later that she had even noticed. What an odd thing to pick up on at a time like this, from a friend and another girl… She shook her head at herself drawing Miku's attention back and she started to look around, but she shifted her gaze almost immediately back to the side once more as a door opened from the way back into the compound and Director Hatsune walked out into the yard.

He walked up to them in short order with his ground eating strides and Miku offered get father a bright smile, which he returned in a much more subdued manner, the barest curving of his lips, a slight wrinkle at the corners of his eyes behind his glasses. He looked from one girl to the other with an intent expression. "I believe it's time we showed Yowane-san the detection grid."

Miku nodded and hopped up off the bench, brushing at the back of her skirt in case anything had gotten on it. Haku followed suit more sedately, not hoping an only shaking her skirt once. They followed when the director led them back into the facility and down a few corridors Haku hadn't been down yet until they came to a solid looking door at the end of a hallway with a security chip reader beside it. Haku watched with interest as Director Hatsune slid his ID badge into it chip facing up and a moment later a little red light on the reader flashed to green and the door slid aside. It remained open long enough for the three of them to pass through before the light turned red once more and the door slid shut. They were in the end of a hallway that stretched off to the right and another door directly across from them, a seam down the center suggesting an elevator access. Director Hatsune used his ID to access the elevator as well and they all stepped inside. Haku noticed there were several buttons on the door panel to choose from but Miku's father pressec the first one and the elevator descended smoothly by one floor to sub basement one and the doors opened with a ding.

The room they stepped into was vast and Haku's red eyes went wide. "Welcome to Vocaloid Headquarters, Yowane-san." Director Hatsune gestured expansively at the din of activity in the large command center. There were at least two dozen people going about whatever work they were doing, some bustling about at tasks and others sitting at computer terminals similar to the testing bank she had seen in the medical ward with it's keyboard seemingly etched into the consoles directly rather than hooked up as a separate peripheral. All of the tech she could see was beyond impressive, some of it was downright futuristic looking. The elevator let out from one wall onto a walkway that stretched to either side for some ways until it hit doorways at either end, branching off before either exit to side rooms she couldn't see into from her angle looking at the archways, but before her on the other side of the walkway was a few steps up to a raised deck which the director led them all up and onto. The entire deck was large enough that it made Haku think of a showroom, and all of the computer banks and monitors and terminals around the outside edges ringed a central metal table that was bigger than any three dining tables put together. It had several projectors built into it's surface which were generating a holographic representation of the city just above the table's surface. Opposite the steps they came up on the other side of the table was a massive monitor taller than a person and taking up most of that wall, and on it was a display grid showing several satellite image feeds of the surrounding areas of the city.

"This is where we monitor and track souldrinker activity as well as our Vocaloid's progress in the field while on their hunts." Director Hatsune said, gesturing expansively, and indeed Haku could see that many of those sitting at computer banks had a headset on and were talking with someone over a cell connection, presumably whoever they were watching on their smaller monitors before them, each display per person showing only one of the satellite feeds from the large screen.

"You watch every hunt?" Haku asked curiously looking about.

"Only the more delicate cases. Standard hunts with low ranked souldrinkers we don't always watch, but more powerful ones we do, and we monitor a new Vocaloid's first several hunts for safety."

Haku turned to look at the hologram of the city again. The image itself was a dull blue colored wireframe like a construction blueprint, and there were several colored dots moving slowly amongst it with nametags showing which Vocaloids were out in the field. She spotted Luka's pink dot labeled with her name quickly enough, and she turned to glance around at the monitors but couldn't find the idol on any of them. Her case must have been too standard for active monitoring.

"How do you actually detect them?" She asked curiously.

"The hardware used is a combination a satellite in orbit working in tandem with a large antenna on the roof of this building as well as several others around the city. There are very few naturally occurring sources of high frequency sonic vibrations, so any time one of the arrays picks up a source we trace it. If it's moving, it's a target." The director spoke like a man who knew how a thing worked but not why, but the knowledge was solid.

Haku blinked and glanced up at the monitors. "This is all extremely advanced technology. Did you develop it here?"

"We adjusted it to our purposes, but no we did not develop it per se. We may not report to the government, but we have contacts. Much of our equipment was adapted after procuring from the space program, though they don't know we repurposed one of their satellites."

"All of this was designed to work in space!" Miku let out an excited giggle. "Isn't that amazing?!"

"Space?" Haku blinked and then lifted her head as an expression of understanding came over her face. "That's why all of this is designed to pick up sound in the terahertz ranges!" She expected them to conversate with her more about it, but they just nodded like it was obvious. Their faces held looks similar to the tone of the director's voice. They got it, but they didn't truly understand it. "The laws of physics operate a little differently between an atmosphere and a vacuum. A sonic vibration in the terahertz range is not really that feasible on Earth due to the weight of the atmosphere and the planet's rotation, but in space it would be necessary. Soundwaves carrying in a vacuum are like ripples in a pond, they don't ever completely go away but the farther they travel the weaker they become over time and distance so more powerful signals are necessary to make it very far. I had wondered why you had equipment that sensitive."

They both just stared at her for long moments, Director Hatsune with a look of bemusement and Miku with an expression of wonder. "Haku-chan!" she finally said after a moment. "You're a genius!" She looked up at her father. "Did you know all that? She's a genius!"

The director nodded slowly. "I had a general awareness of it…" he said, unwilling to directly admit any lack of understanding. Haku flushed at the compliment and he added. "Our R&D tech team knows every intimate detail of it of course, though not everyone needs to know. But yes, it is equipment we have received from government space programs, which is why it's capable of what it does."

Haku turned her gaze back to the hologram once again, more to avert her eyes and her embarrassment than anything. She picked out Luka's dot and watched it move through what looked like an industrial area. A second dot near hers was a dark red color and motionless most of the time, but every now and then would flash to bright red and move in a jerky way jumping from place to place. She frowned at that and Miku pointed over her shoulder at the hologram, and Haku jumped not having realized her friend had moved up behind her.

"Luka-chin's headset signal shows where she is at all times." Miku said resting her other hand on Haku's shoulder in a steadying way. "The sonic grid has to track the souldrinker based on his Voltage output. When he's not moving or doing anything we lose track and only know his last location."

When Haku had jumped she had inadvertently moved in closer against Miku, and she could feel the other girl's form pressed against hers. She was so soft and she smelled of floral scents and a lightly pleasant perfume Haku was unfamiliar with. She had a strange urge all of a sudden to bury her nose into Miku's shoulder and sniff, the desire coming out of nowhere and so confusing she blushed deeply. She hoped the other two thought it because of her jumping at Miku's coming up behind her. The pretty light blue haired girl either didn't notice their closeness or wasn't concerned by it. Haku swallowed hard, why was she so hot all over? She turned to try to focus on Luka's dot. As she watched the two move the idol seemed to be getting closer and closer despite the periodic jumps the red dot was doing as it faded in and out of detection. Then suddenly it simply winked out all together.

Director Hatsune's expression turned to one of extreme satisfaction and a moment later there was a ringing at one of the consoles. He walked over to it and flicked a switch. "Director Hatsune." He said.

"Megurine. Hunt successful, Director." Luka's crystalline voice came from a speaker on the console.

"Well done, Megurine-san. Report back, I'll dispatch a cleanup crew to your current location."

"Understood, Megurine out." The line went dead.

Miku giggled and hopped in place a bit and Haku shivered as she felt Miku's body bouncing against her back. "Luka-chin is so good at this!"

Director Hatsune turned and walked to the railing to glance down toward one of the lowered areas Haku hadn't been able to see into. "Hunt Cleanup Crew, report to grid forty seven gamma, standard response." An acknowledgment was called up to him and he turned back to the girls. "Miku, why don't you take Yowane-san back upstairs? It's getting late in the afternoon, perhaps you are getting hungry?"

Haku's stomach gurgled reminding her of how true that fact was and Miku nodded. "Okaaaaaaaay!" She took Haku's hand. "This way, Haku-chan, let's go wait for Luka-chin and go get dinner!"

Haku followed wordlessly, her mind full of thoughts of the feel of Miku's body and the scent of her perfume as well as mental images of Luka's face and memories of their hug in the coffee shop. What was wrong with her? Why couldn't she stop thinking about such things? It was wrong! … wasn't it? She let none of it show on her face though, managing to keep the calm serene exterior she had been practicing in place, but inside her stomach felt like it was doing backflips.

Miku operated the elevator and soon they found themselves in the garage waiting for Luka's return. It took a long time for Haku to get her nerves back under control, and when she did she glanced at her friend. "Miku-chan…?" she asked carefully.

"Hm?" Miku's voice was like a gentle wind chime. Haku opened her mouth, wanting to ask if she'd noticed how she had pressed up against her, to ask what it felt like to her. She wanted to know if it felt the same to the other girl or if she was just being crazy. But the words died on her tongue and she closed her mouth again. Miku tilted her head curiously, her green eyes sparkling in the dim light of the garage. "What is it?"

Haku was silent for a long moment before smiling in a way she hoped seemed natural. "What's good to eat near here? I don't know this side of town very well."

"Oh! There's lots of places!" Miku began to ramble off names of restaurants and the types of food they served, both foreign cuisines and domestic fare. If she noticed Haku's small slip she gave no sign of it and Haku forced herself to breath once more. She closed her eyes briefly and heaved a sigh. She couldn't say it, couldn't even think it. Whether Miku had or had not noticed, one seemed as bad as the other. If she had, she might think Haku weird or perverted or something. If she hadn't Haku didn't want to creep Miku out by bringing it up. Either way she had to just let it go. She opened her red eyes again and forced herself to listen to Miku's bubbly recitation, outwardly as calm and serene as a statue. Nothing was wrong. Everything was okay...


	5. Vocaloid Academy Chapter 5

The next few weeks seemed to go by in a blur to Haku. She spent a couple of hours every morning in dance lessons with Makoto, which either Miku or Luka or both would usually come with to watch when they didn't have other duties to see to, and after lunch would be a couple of hours training her voice in singing practice. The Vocaloid Compound wasn't technically a school but it sure began to feel like one to Haku, or maybe more like a private academy with it's vast stretches of hallways and large empty rooms. The place could have held several times it's current number of inhabitants, very much like a fancy boarding school. She passed other Vocaloids in the halls each day as they went about the same sort of daily routine as she did, and she wondered at why she never interacted with them. It seemed strange to be housed among so many other people who were in effect complete strangers, but there were no real classes as everything was done through tutoring lessons, and no actual dining hall either to share meals in, so the place lacked even the small social qualities of a traditional school. Apart from sleeping in the Compound as performing duties or attending lessons most Vocaloids spent their time outside the walls.

Her evenings were largely her own, and not a day went by that either Miku or Luka or both would bundle her off for dinner, which suited her just fine. She had never had any real friends before, growing up shut away in her parent's house, and she treasured every moment the other two spent with her. She found herself waking up each morning wondering what they would be doing that day and going to bed at night hoping to see them the next day. They spent so much time together every night either out together shopping or dining or in one or the other of their rooms just talking and laughing together it was like some sappy story, but Haku couldn't have been happier about it.

Today however she couldn't find either girl. It was lunch time and she was looking for them but found herself wandering the corridors aimlessly. She'd just checked their rooms and was on her way to check the bathroom next. Of course it was possible they weren't in the Compound at all, but they hadn't said anything to her about leaving today, and when she took her iPhone out of her pocket she found no messages waiting for her. With a small sigh she slid the phone back into her front pants pocket and turned a corner, then had to stop short as she nearly ran headlong into Doctor Hatsune.

Miku's mother recoiled in surprise just as Haku did and when they each recognized the other they bowed apologetically, Haku bending at the waist a little more than the doctor as appropriate for younger to elder, folding her hands before her. The doctor's hair was several shades of blue darker than her daughter's light blue but she had the same bright green eyes and easy smile. "Oh, hello there Yowane-san, I had been looking for you."

Haku blinked as she straightened up from her bow, leaving her hands folded before her in a respectful way. "Yes, Doctor Hatsune?"

"Your ID badge is ready, Yowane-san. I gave it to Miku to give to you since you girls have been spending so much time together lately, but if I'd known I would run into you first I would have delivered it myself." Miku's mother's lips curved up in a matronly smile.

Haku ducked her head in thanks. "That's ok, I'll go find her now. Thank you, Doctor Hatsune."

"You're welcome dear."

They bowed their heads to each other and Miku's mother went on her way down the hallway, and Haku returned to her search for Miku. She turned the few corners to the bathrooms and stepped into the front changing area of the girl's room. No one was there but there were two cubbies in use with clothes in them. Maybe they were in the bath? Cautiously she moved through the changing room to the entrance to the bath, then froze when the sounds caught her ear. Two voices, one panting breathlessly and the other making a dirty slurping noise among whispers. Haku felt her cheeks immediately catch fire. There was no way that could be anything except what it sounded like! Not in a place like this! But… was it Miku and Luka? Surely not! Miku had said… no! … was it…? She felt hot all over at the thought of it being the two girls she was looking for but she was so embarrassed she couldn't move. She didn't want to look, didn't want to be caught looking! She thought she would die of embarrassment on the spot if it was them and they saw her looking. But she had to know if it was them, something compelled her to find out. She had to know because… she didn't know why, but if it was them…

A low moan escaped the lips of the breathless one and Haku instinctively clenched her legs tightly together and put a balled first to her lips to bite her big knuckle to keep from making any noise. Carefully, slowly, inch by inch, she turned her head around the corner just barely enough to peek with one eye at the massive bathtub. If either of the two girls on the tub's edge had looked up at that moment all they would have seen was one wide round red eye, a fist over her mouth, and one side off Haku's favorite lacy black bow visible at the side of her neck where it held her snowy cascading locks back. But they didn't look up, and Haku got an eyeful of the scene. The gasping girl sitting on the edge of the tub sideways to Haku had short green hair that didn't quite brush her shoulders and a curvy figure. Haku couldn't see much of the other girl beyond red locks caught up in a net that would otherwise have hung just a bit lower than her shoulder blades but the rest of her athletic thin frame was hidden by the tub's wall and her face was buried between the other girl's legs.

"Wh-what if someone… comes in…?" The green haired girl panted in a husky tone, her voice sounding like it was ordinarily quite cheerful when not choked with lusty breathlessness.

"It's lunch time, no one is coming in." The red haired girl's voice was emotionless though still pretty but was muffled by where her mouth was and hot with need.

Suddenly the green haired girl let out a long low moan and Haku instinctively bit down harder on her knuckle then cried out from the sudden pain lancing through her hand. The two girl's heads instantly came up but Haku had already whipped around to flee. She was out in the hallway with a loud bang of the bathroom door and down the hall like a flash. In no time she was back in her room panting hard and gulping lungfuls of air that made her ample chest heave. She felt like her face was on fire and her whole body was hot all over. Two girls… doing… doing THAT?! How was that even…?! How could they touch each other in… that way?! Wasn't it wrong?! Or perverted?! Haku felt her breath begin to slow a little as she started getting her wind back and she shook her head. Come to think on it, it didn't LOOK dirty or wrong… but that wasn't important. the important thing was that she didn't think they'd gotten a good enough look at her to recognize her, and it wasn't Miku and Luka. Though... If it had been… Haku felt her cheeks heating worse. She might have enjoyed looking if it had… she felt another wave of heat wash through her middle and she realized she was bending forward slightly and had her legs clamped shut so hard her muscles were locking up painfully.

It took her several minutes to get calmed down enough to compose herself, and she found it helped to focus on her hand. She'd bitten down on her first knuckle so hard she'd drawn a little blood. Using some cotton balls from her makeup stand she dabbed it a clean as possible, then dug a couple of bandaids out of her bathroom bag. After she had bandaged her hand she considered it a moment. She didn't like having visible bandages, they were ugly and everyone would know something had happened. Turning to her wardrobe she opened it and rooted around until she found some thin black felt gloves and tugged them on. At least they matched her shirt, a silky black number with long loose frilly sleeves. Her black jeans competed the set, and if anyone thought her gloves odd, well, the weather was beginning to grow colder after all. As soon as that was done and she felt like she had her blushes under control she headed out of her room once more. She still felt heat in her middle but she wasn't sure what she could do about that right then, so she just went back to looking for Miku.

The last place Haku could think to look before she began just aimlessly wandering was the courtyard and the tree Miku liked, so she headed that direction, winding her way through the corridors until she reached the front areas, but when she got to the gates she found the courtyard completely empty. The sky overhead was overcast with dark threatening clouds, so it made sense that no one was out here. Sighing she turned to go, then stopped as she glanced toward the side door into the garage as a flash of pink caught her eye. Carefully she moved over to the door, some distant part of her mind fearing a repeat of earlier though she couldn't imagine why anyone would be doing… THAT… in a place so dirty as the garage, but she still moved slowly. She peeked through the crack and the motion of her head must have alerted Luka's peripheral vision because the idol looked up with a smile for her from where she was sitting on a mat beside her motorcycle off toward one corner of the large garage so she could work out of the way. "Hi Haku-chin. I know it's lunch time but I'm not really clean enough for food at the moment." She held up her hands which had grease smears on them up to her elbows, and she even had a finger width steak against one side of her nose. She had her long flowing pink hair wound up and tied against the back of her head so it wouldn't trail in anything and she was wearing old ripped jeans and a cruddy old stained grey t-shirt but Haku thought she was so beautiful she made even those clothes look good. "I'd need to go have a bath first and I'm not done here yet."

"I wouldn't… use the bath right now anyway…" Haku answered trying to cover her rising blush by running a considering look over the array of tools and mechanical parts arrayed on a towel beside the pink haired beauty. "I didn't know you were mechanically inclined. What are you doing?" She asked genuinely curious.

Luka's blue eyes narrowed for a moment at Haku's comment on the bathroom but glanced over at the tools as well. "I learned how to keep my own bike in good condition when I was younger, and I just picked up more from there." She replied, reaching over to a corner of the towel and lifting a white and grey cylindrical thing up for Haku to see. "This is a spark plug, and as you can see it's blackened and gross." Haku nodded and the idol set it back down to lift up a clean new one. "They go out occasionally and have to be changed." She leaned back over the bike once more to a spot on the engine that was unhooked and began screwing it into a hole over top of a hollow cylinder. "I've already done the others, this is the last one, and I just sort of tune up as I go."

Haku wasn't sure what to say to this so she moved over a little behind and to the side of the other girl to watch over her shoulder. Luka seemed very focused on what she was doing and Haku didn't want to disturb her but she was fascinated. That aside she had a very nice view of the idol sitting beneath her and at one point she caught herself staring, admiring the way the other girl's body curved and flexed as she leaned this way or that to reach tools or parts or the bike, watching as she shifted and twisted. Her skin looked so soft, and her face was so radiant when she smiled, and there was something about the whole scene of Luka as a working girl that just made her feel… something... Wait! What was she thinking?! Luka was her friend, and another girl besides! It must have been the heat from the incident in the bathroom, she decided. But then… that had been other girl's too… what could that mean…? She didn't know, but Luka really was beautiful… The kind of sheer beauty that other people fell all over themselves for...

"Enjoying the view?" Luka's crystalline voice was playful as she glanced up briefly at the other girl as she went about her work.

Haku jumped and she felt her cheeks heating as they had done earlier. She struggled hard to pull the calm outward serenity around herself, but she managed it after a moment. "Oh uhm… I just thought that… I mean mechanics are usually so…" She didn't want to be impolite but Luka giggled at her.

"Fat and ugly grease covered monkeys?" Luka asked, and when Haku blushed a little more and nodded she giggled again. "It's a stereotype, but as with most things there is some basis in truth." She paused a moment and glanced up. "Are you saying you'd like it more if my pants weren't covering my backside as much…?"

Haku wished her cheeks would stop catching fire so bad and she looked away with a mumbled, "That's plumbers…"

Luka just laughed outright this time and bent back to her work. Even her laugh was pretty, a clear ringing sound... Haku resumed her observations but kept her eyes fixed on the bike or the idol's hands. Every so often the pink haired beauty would reach for a tool, setting one down on the grimy towel to pick up another, ratcheting or wrenching this or that. It didn't look too overly complicated to Haku but she had no idea what Luka was actually doing. She supposed it was just general mechanical maintenance or there would probably be more tools around, or some sort of equipment, but that didn't make it any easier to guess what was going on. A spark plug? What did a spark plug do? What really captivated her attention however was how smoothly and deftly Luka was handling the tools, her slim delicate fingers confident and quick in their work, her motions swift yet sure, from long hours of practice she was sure. The sleek black and rose chrome bike was extremely well cared for, that much was obvious at a glance from how clean and unmarred it mostly was. The idol had clearly gone to great lengths to keep it well maintained, a labor of love.

Luka reached over to set down a wrench and shifted a hand to pick up another tool, then stopped and blinked at the towel in confusion before sighing and shaking her head. "I must have put it back earlier…" She glanced up at Haku and tilted her head, a few stray wisps of pink hair shifting as she did. "Haku-chin, could I ask you to go over to that tool box over there and get me the thirteen millimeter socket?" Haku turned toward the toolbox in the corner Luka indicated with a gesture of one greasy hand and walked over to it. "Second drawer down, the cylindrical looking things attached to a strip of metal. No, right side of the drawer, they're little strips of- yeah that. One of them will say thirteen mm on it. That's the one!" Haku popped the socket off the wire strip and put the rest back before bringing the requested piece to the idol. "Thank you, Haku-chin." Luka beamed up at her with a smile that made her fidget then picked up what looked kind of like a wrench but not really. She fitted the socket to the head of the wrench and it snapped in place before she bent back to the bike, and a moment later a sort of rapid clicking sound could be heard as the idol rotated it back and forth.

"My favorite uncle was a mechanic." Luka said after a time, neither pausing in or looking up from what she was doing. "He worked in a shop to eventually become a chief mechanic. Whenever my mother and father had business that kept them away when I was little they would let me stay with him at his shop. He taught me a lot, and when I was old enough he started letting me help out. Once I was old enough to go around by myself I split my free time up between singing practices and stopping by his shop after school. One day when I was about fourteen a customer brought a beautiful bike in to have some custom body work done. The rose fiber glass and chrome were especially expensive and when it was all finished the customer didn't want to pray what he'd agreed to. He threatened to sue my uncle if he didn't release the bike to him but my uncle wouldn't do it. I never saw the customer again after he stormed out but it was months before my uncle's lawyer was able to resolve the situation. In the end the pretty bike stayed with us." She set the clicking wrench down on the towel and pulled another towel from a pocket. She began working to remove some of the grime from her slim fingers. "After he caught me riding it in the scrap yard behind the shop he scolded me for trying to ride a motorcycle for the first time without supervision, but not for doing it in the first place, just for doing it without him there. After that he helped me learn, and when I turned sixteen he gave me the bike for my birthday when I moved out on my own." Setting the towel down she rested a hand tenderly on the bike in an affectionate way. "He died of a brain tumor the following year…" Her crystalline voice broke for a moment and while her eyes misted up no tears actually fell. She sounded like it was an old wound, one which had slowly scarred over a long time. Haku reached out to put a hand on the idol's shoulder and Luka turned to look up at her. "I don't know what it is about you that makes me open up so much, Haku-chin, but… I'm glad I can, if it doesn't bother you. They're all gone, one way and another. Every one of them… I'm all that remains… I… I don't have any family left."

Haku felt her heart going out to the other girl and she squeezed her shoulder. "Sure you do." She said, and when Luka tilted her head she added. "You have me now, like you said. And you have Miku-chan."

Luka's smile was sudden and radiant and Haku felt her throat close up a bit at just how beautiful the pink haired girl was. She turned and stretched like she was going to try to hug her, and Haku winced but kept herself from pulling back by a sheer effort of will. Luka looked almost hurt for a second until she followed Haku's gaze to her grime covered hands and arms and she let out a nervous giggle before nodding and simply saying, "Thank you, Haku-chin. You don't know how much that means to me. The Vocaloids are my family now..." She stood up and replaced the cover on the engine of her bike and after making sure she had everything back in place she straddled the seat, turned the key, squeezed the hand brake, and kicked the engine over. It started with a roar and she gunned the throttle a few times making the engine rev loudly, and Haku could feel the thrum of it in the pit of her stomach. Luka smiled at the sound. "That's so much better." She said loudly over the roar, then patted the bike and then cut the engine. She swung her leg back over it to lean down by the rags. "If you don't mind Haku-chin, I need to take a ride, clear my head a bit."

Haku watched her put the tools away and bag up the greasy rags curiously. "I could go with you, if you want." She suggested. She hoped that Luka would say yes but she knew instinctively what answer the other girl would give even before she shook her head.

"I appreciate it, but no. Sometimes I just need to gun the engine and feel the wind to get my thoughts in order." She paused and offered a smile over her shoulder. "Rain check? I promise I'll take you out next time."

Haku gave a nod and turned for the door. "I understand, I should get back to trying to find Miku-chan anyway."

"If she's not in her room or the cafeteria or the dance studios, try the room at the end of the second floor northwest hallway." She smiled knowingly but before Haku could ask for more information the idol gave her a small smile and started wheeling her bike toward the other end of the garage, hitting a button on her handlebars that made the garage door begin to rise even as she slid her helmet on over her bound up pink locks.

Haku watched her go with a tilt to her head, her feelings for the other girl roiling through her in a tight tangle she couldn't even begin to unravel. She had no idea what she was feeling or why, but it was a strong emotion whatever it was. Her chest felt tight and her heart pounded at times, and other times she just wanted to stare at the idol. She shook her head to try to clear it before turning to leave the garage once more. She followed the directions she had been given, heading up the main flight of stairs to the second floor, then proceeding to the northwest corridor. She began passing studios similar to the ones downstairs but these weren't padded for dancing. Most of them had hardwood floors and an assortment of personal workout equipment in the form of light aerobics: Jump ropes, hand weights, heavy looking balls, those sorts of things. The last room, however, while built like the others, had no equipment of any kind in it, but there were a number of tables covered in varying sizes of papers and canvases, pens and pencils and paints and brushes and every manner of calligraphy supplies. No less than a half dozen easels stood around the sides of the room, but in the dead center of the floor stood one in use by the pretty light blue haired girl she sought. Miku had a brush in her hand and was concentrating intently on a large canvas. Haku had a good look at the canvas as she stepped into the room before she thought about what she was doing, her foot coming down on the hardwood floor with a click of her shoe heel.

Miku jumped and whirled, her green eyes catching Haku's red with a wide stare. "H-Haku-chan!" Hurriedly she spun around with a mortified look on her face, slamming her brush down beside the paint tray on the lower part of the easel, then turned and grabbed the canvas she had been working on and pulled it off the stand, spinning to fling it off toward the opposite corner of the room with a cry. The canvas landed face first against the corner of a table, a bit of brown pine jabbing through the middle of the canvas. Haku let out a strangled noise and took a few steps toward the canvas to try to rescue it but Miku dove into her way and put a restraining hand on Haku's shoulder. "Don't! Haku-chan, please!" Her normally wind chime like voice sounded desperate now and Haku stopped.

"Was that… was that you and Luka-chan? And…?"

Miku shook her head vehemently causing her light blue twintails to sway, which she had tied at the nape of her neck to hang down her shoulderblades today rather than off the sides of her head. "No! It… it was nothing! Haku-chan please, I'm begging you!" She sounded on the verge of tears and suddenly her grip on Haku's shoulder turned painful as her nails dung in through the black fabric. "Please, Haku-chan! Please leave it alone!"

Haku winced at the sting in her shoulder but she nodded, "Okay, Miku-chan, I'm sorry. I'll leave you alone." She tried to turn to go but Miku's hand wouldn't let go of her shoulder and she tugged Haku back.

"No, no please stay, I'm… I'm sorry, okay? Please just stay but leave it alone. Please?" Her shoulders shook and Haku gave another nod and reached up to pat Miku's arm.

"Okay, I will, I'm sorry I…" She winced again and shrugged at the grip on her shoulder. Why was she so insistent on staying? "Miku-chan, you're hurting me…" She whispered.

Miku's green eyes widened in surprise and she let out a little squeak as she forced her hand open, releasing Haku's shoulder which she immediately rubbed at with her other hand, rolling and flexing it. "I'm sorry I didn't mean to…" Miku said in a low voice before taking a step back She was wearing a blue open faced blazer over a black shirt with a pleated white skirt, and while her hands had a few smudges of paint on them Haku saw that her clothes were miraculously unmarred. An odd thing to notice at a time like this she thought.

They stood in awkward silence for a long few moments before Haku dropped her hand from her shoulder and glanced around. There were a few other convasases in the room, propped on other easels, and they looked like they were in the same sort of style as the other one had been. If that had been Luka and Miku on that other one being cleaved apart by a giant sword… had the incomplete faceless white haired sword wielder supposed to have been her…? She felt her chest tighten but this time it was in anxiety rather than the other warm feeling, however confusing. Did Miku think she was… interfering in something…? She shook her head and had to try hard to keep her outward serenity in place. She gestured at the other paintings. "Did you… did you do all these?" Miku swallowed and nodded, apparently still trying to get herself under control, and Haku turned to focus on them instead to give the pretty blue haired girl a moment. One was a beautiful sunset over an ocean horizon, the colors so vivid and the water so sparkling she almost felt like she could see it for real; the sun looked peaceful, the sand inviting, and a chorus of gulls seemed to play over the water. Another was a winter forest scene, so cold and lonely but so pristine that the beauty of nature was unmistakable; she felt like if she screamed at the top of her lungs it would just bounce around and off the tree trunks, maybe disturb the snow on the branches a little bit. A third was of a woman in ancient armor standing in a defensive posture between a cowering figure behind her and a dragon before her that looked intent on devouring them both. The armor shone bright and true and the dragon's scales glittered menacingly and Haku could almost see the lady knight bracing herself as the dragon inhaled, it's hot breath causing smoke to drift up from it's maw. There were a few others hung on the walls in more permanent positions but covered with black cloths so they would only be displayed when the artist desired. When Miku wanted to, that was.

She looked on at the paintings in silence until she felt more than saw Miku move up beside her to look as well. Haku gestured at them and offered a smile that she hoped wasn't strained by the anxiety she was feeling. "You're amazing, Miku-chan. I'm impressed."

Miku didn't look back at Haku, keeping her eyes fixed forward she shrugged. "These aren't done yet."

Haku shook her head. "Done or not your talent is clear. Really I'm deeply impressed."

Miku was silent for a long few minutes, staying quiet for so long that Haku wasn't sure she would say anything else at all. She turned her head away too look back at the paintings and once they were both staring straight ahead Miku finally spoke, and Haku kept her eyes fixed forward lest she silence her friend with an l unwanted look.

"My parents are both doctors." Miku's voice was a strain of tightly controlled emotion. "Both of my grandparents on both sides were doctors. Seven of my nine cousins are all doctors or medical students, and the other two are in other fields of scientific pursuits. My father has traced our family lines back for five generations in all directions. Nearly three out of every four of them are doctors or scientists."

Miku went quiet for a moment and Haku interjected tentatively into the silence, "But not you."

It wasn't a question but Miku answered as if it had been. "I got straight A's in High School and graduated early, and at pressure from my parents I took some pre-med courses in my first term at college, but no I have no interest in being a doctor. I wanted to be an artist, or a performer, or a dancer or singer…" She ran her gaze over the paintings with an earnest look to her green eyes that Haku could just catch out of the peripheral of her vision. "I've always been good at drawing, at painting, but I love to sing and dance too. I wanted to do those things for a career, but my father…" she let out a long suffering sigh. "He wouldn't hear of it. He said he would only pay for my college if I went to med school."

Haku blinked in surprise at that. "That doesn't sound like Director Hatsune. I thought he was a more fairly minded person than that."

Miku shook her head. "He is, with everyone else. My father… he's a great man. As a doctor he's done a lot, accomplished a lot. He was there when the first souldrinkers showed up, and that was after nearly a decade long spectacular medical career. As a father…" Miku's green eyes tightened in a wince. "He's strict but fair. He'll always hear me out, but he has final say. He wants the same prestige for me that he's had, wants me to carry on the family honor. He's a great man…" She repeated the last part again, as though by rote sounding like she was trying to remind herself more than convince her friend.

Haku risked turning her gaze back to the other girl and placed a had on Miku's arm in a comforting way. "That's a lot of weight for a parent to put on their child's shoulders. You shouldn't feel like you have to live up to it, Miku-chan."

Miku dropped her gaze and tears welled up in her eyes, though her voice remained steady "You're right, I don't have too… but not because I convinced him. Not because I found a better way. I don't have to live up to it because of luck." She bit the last word off bitterly. "We found out how strong of a Vocaloid I can become, and when I said I wanted to focus on that my parents agreed and my father relented on med school." Her fists shook she was clenching them so hard. "I got out of it. The first chance I got, the first excuse that came along, I jumped ship and ran away like a coward."

Haku was stunned. She'd thought Miku was as transparent as a person could be with her thoughts and feelings but this was a whole deeper level of the other girl than she'd thought there was to her friend. Carefully she shifted her hand from Miku's arm to her chin to lift her teary eyed gaze up to meet her eyes. Miku resisted at first then let her chin come up, and Haku smiled for her.

"Do you really want to focus on being a Vocaloid first and an artist or singer second?"

Miku nodded fervently. "Yes. That's what I want, with all my heart."

"Then what does it matter how you came to it? Luck or intent, purpose or happenstance, you have what you want right? If you do those things to the best of your ability, be the best you can be, you'll show your father and everyone else that you deserve them just by doing well. And I'll be here to help you, and Luka-chan too." Haku felt her chest burning with emotion at the connotations she didn't quite comprehend, like she had with the pink haired beauty earlier, but she didn't understand it any more now than she had then so she did her best to ignore it for the time being.

Miku blinked in surprise before tilting her head. "You know, that's the same sort of thing Luka-chin said about it."

Haku giggled. "That means it must true."

Miku nodded and her expression hardened to one of steely resolve. "You're right of course, I know that. I try to keep it in mind. It's just hard because I don't want to let my family down. But…" She gritted her teeth and her expression turned even more determined. "But this is what I want! I can do this! I'll show them, I'll show everyone." Haku was struck again by just how many layers there really was to Miku as she watched that iron will showing forth past her friend's usually bubbly girly exterior. It made her think of a sword wrapped in a silk sheath. The pretty blue haired girl was veiled iron, and Haku had simply walked in on her in a weak moment. This must be where Miku came when she was feeling down to paint away her emotions. Suddenly the paintings she had been seeing made a lot more sense and she felt somehow as though she had intruded upon a private sanctuary. She felt like maybe she should make an excuse and leave, but Miku hadn't let her go, had asked her to stay, and now she wasn't sure what to do. The moment of uncertainty made her feel awkward which brought back her own insecurities from the afternoon so far. The feelings all compounded upon each other and she felt lightheaded suddenly.

Miku must have noticed something of it, some sign in her facial expression or her body language, because she took one of Haku's arms and led her to a stool beside a table piled with stacks of blank canvases against a wall. "Here Haku-chan, sit down for a bit and keep me company while I paint?"

Haku shook her head faintly, "No it's okay, I'm alright." She muttered in protest, but she let Miku push her gently onto the stool anyway trying not to pay too close of attention at just how soft the other girl felt as she brushed against her in the process. Once she was seated she let herself lean back against the wall and Miku turned to the table and selected a blank canvas of medium size and walked over to place it on the easel she had been using a moment before. She rotated the easel a quarter turn so it couldn't be seen from the direction of the door or the table where Haku was sitting, and Haku watched the pretty blue haired girl as she took up her brush and began to paint. Every so often she would glance up at Haku and they would trade a brief smile before Miku returned her focus to her canvas. After a time Haku let her eyes drift close and her head tilt back against the wall as well, and she spent some time thinking about her two friends. She had seen sides of both of them today she hadn't known were there before and she was happy to have gotten a little closer to them. They had been growing closer these past weeks after all but so far it had all been laughing and gossiping, and while that was important bonding time she was sure that couldn't be all there was to it. And she had seen something in their eyes to, something else was there whenever they looked at her, and she wasn't sure what it was or what it meant. She couldn't manage to untangle her emotions about them either, all she knew so far was that she wanted more than anything to keep being around them. She would follow wherever they led from now on, she was sure, however creepy and awkward that sounded even just admitting to herself. But they had become almost all she could think about most of the time, and she didn't know what that meant either. Come to think on it she couldn't figure out why she couldn't figure so much of this out. It seemed every thought chain she followed lead her back to uncertainty, one way or another.

"Haku-chan, wake up."

Miku's voice made Haku's red eyes flutter open she looked up. "Ha?"

Miku giggled, her bubbly self apparently back in place. "You drifted off, you're going to get sore if you sleep on a stool."

She was already sore she realized, and Haku stifled a groan as she flexed her legs and arms pushing away from the wall. "I didn't mean to. How long was I asleep?"

"Maybe an hour." Miku glanced up at a clock mounted up on the wall. "We missed lunch, but I thought maybe we could go find Luka-chin and go get some early dinner?"

"That sounds nice." Haku said managing to stand up and only wincing a little as her calves contracted painfully from their stiff position where she had locked them against the stool legs to keep her upright while asleep. She glanced around and saw the canvas on the easel Miku had been working on was now covered with a black cloth and all of her paints were put away on one of the tables. The window at the end of the room showed the already overcast day had grown a little darker while she had slept and had made good on it's threat of rain, the sound of raindrops pattering lightly against the glass echoing audibly in the largely empty studio. She blinked and looked at the other girl and Miku smiled and walked them out into the hallway. "I saw Luka-chan before coming up here. She was going on a ride after she had been tinkering with her bike. I don't know how long she was planning on being gone."

"Hm." Miku tapped her chin with a finger and tilted her head, her twintails swaying slightly behind her. "Why don't we go look for her? You check her room, and I'll check the garage after I lock up here." She paused a moment and blinked before reaching into a pocket that was really more of a fold in her white pleats to produce a security chipped ID badge with Haku's picture on it. "Before I forget, here. Mom asked me to give your ID badge to you."

"Thank you." Haku said with a nod and turned to head for the dorms. At the end of the corridor something made her turn to glance back and she saw that Miku had gone back into her studio. Wondering why she turned to head back then hurriedly back pedaled out of sight as she saw the other girl reemerge with a canvas in her arms clutched to her chest. A canvas with an angular table corner shaped gouge in the upper middle of it. Ducking around the next corner as well Haku watched as Miku took a different turn toward a back flight of stairs, never glancing back. Why would she turn to look? It's not like anyone had cause to be stalking her in that compound. With an impulse driving her Haku proceeded with the stalking. The back stairs let out into what looked to be a service hallway with a rear door that was secured with an ID chip reader just like the others she had seen within the compound, and Miku wasted no time beeping the door as Haku watched from around the corner of the stairwell. The door swung open and Miku ducked out into the alleyway. Haku started to follow but a moment later scrambled back into the stairwell out of view as her friend came back through the door as quickly as she had gone out no longer holding the canvas. She retreated up the stairs farther incase Miku came back up that way but the light blue haired girl passed the stairs to continue on the ground floor. Of course, Haku realized, she was going to check the garage for Luka as she'd said.

Haku waited long enough for Miku's footsteps to fade away down the hall then bounded out of the stairwell to the door, used her new ID chip to open it, then stepped out into the alleyway. The dumpster was right beside the door, it was no wonder Miku had only been out here for a moment. Haku had to hurry, Miku would be coming by her room any minute after checking the garage. The dumpster rim was almost as tall as she was and getting herself up over the edge of it involved some grunting and leverage, and she squeaked in pain as she pinched the side of her left breast against the rim trying to maneuver herself, but it only took her a moment to clear her torso over the rim so she could reach the canvas, pulling it free of the trash and letting herself drop back to the ground. As she had thought it was the same canvas the other girl had been working on when she'd come on her unaware. It was unfinished, but Miku and Luka were recognizable, and even if the faceless white haired sword wielder swinging a giant blade between them to separate them wasn't it seemed obvious to Haku.

Clutching the canvas to her chest as Miku had done earlier she beeped the chip reader to let her back into the building then sprinted down the back hallways toward the dorms. She had to hurry to get back before her friend did, she didn't want to be seen with the canvas. She wasn't even entirely sure what had driven her to follow Miku out back in the first place or why she felt the need to rescue the art piece from the rubbish but it seemed important somehow and she could worry over it later. For now she just knew she needed to save it and hide it away. When she finally reached her room she flung the door open with a bang and rushed to her wardrobe, throwing it open as well then tucking the canvas away in the back of it.

"Haku-chin?" Haku squeaked and jumped and slammed her wardrobe closed with another loud bang, which made her jump again, as well as making Luka jump. The idol's blue eyes went wide from the surprise and she raised a hand in a soothing gesture. She had cleaned up and changed out of her old ratty clothes she had been working on her bike in and now wore a pretty white shirt and pink frilly skirt, and while simple in appearance it was obviously an expensive cut and the material was glossy. Her long flowing pink hair was pulled back in a loose ponytail held in place by a white ribbon with pink lace edges. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you. Are you okay? You look out of breath."

Haku shook her head at the apology and began to smooth her silky shirt unnecessarily. "No, no it's okay. Everything's fine."

Luka's eyes narrowed a bit. "Fine? Are you sure? … were you wearing gloves earlier?" A look of concentration crossed her face. "You were, I remember when you put your hand on my shoulder earlier."

"Why ARE you wearing gloves, Haku-chan?" Came Miku's voice as she popped her head into the room beside Luka, and Haku jumped again. Instinctively she pressed her back harder against the wardrobe doors and she crossed her arms to hide her hands.

"It… it's cold…" Miku and Luka exchanged glances then looked back at her with inquisitive expressions. They didn't believe her, she could see it in their eyes. She had to put them off or else tell them what had happened in the bathroom… she hoped she didn't blush too hard at that but the only way she could think to get them off the topic was to turn it around on them, so she pulled her serene outward calm around herself like an emotional cloak and regarded them with a level countenance. "What's going on here anyway?"

Her voice was coolly collected and a touch stern and their eyes widened at her bearing as she drew herself up and shifted her arms so that rather than being tucked around her middle defensively they were instead crossed over her tummy beneath her ample chest in a more self possessed way. They traded looks again before Luka took the lead and spoke. "What do you mean?"

"I mean you two have planned something and are trying to keep me off balance about it.' Haku didn't raise her voice with the accusation, not wanting to convey any anger, but suddenly the other two girls were all wide eyed innocence.

"What could have given you that idea?" Miku asked, mild as milk.

Haku raised one black gloved finger. "First Luka-chan tells me a sad story then says she has to go out alone for awhile, but she just happens to know exactly where I can find Miku-chan." She held up a second finger. "I blunder into an uncomfortable situation with Miku-chan, but rather than let it and me go for politeness sake she begs me to stay with her instead despite the awkwardness. She was expecting me but probably lost track of time." A third finger. "I drift off on accident and Miku-chan wakes me at exactly the right time to go find Luka-chan once more." A fourth finger. "We're apparently going out for dinner and you are both dressed in nicer clothes more well cut than called for by a regular restaurant." She tilted her head and let her hand drop. "If I were to check your phones and texts right now, would I be far off?"

They stared at her incredulously and Miku let out a low whistle of amazement. "Haku-chan you're as smart as you are pretty, you know that?"

Luka opened her mouth with a look in her blue eyes like she was going to keep trying to play dumb but apparently the look on Haku's face convinced her otherwise and she changed what she had been about to say. "TOO smart, and TOO beautiful…" she muttered, a slightly sullen tone in her crystal choice. "It's nothing bad, I promise you'll like it. If we admit it will you play along for a bit?"

Haku tilted her head as though considering, mainly to buy a moment of time to make sure her serenity was firmly in pace. They thought she was pretty…? _Oh gods please don't let me blush._ She thought fervently. When she was sure She wasn't going to embarrass herself she let a small smile curl the corners of her lips. "Play along with what?"

Their answering smiles were so radiant and they were so beautiful she swallowed hard despite her mask of outward calm. These two gorgeous women really thought she was pretty…? Maybe they were just being polite… Regardless she found herself ushered off to the garage and bundled into one of the big black SUVs in short order and they were on their way to wherever the other two had been planning. The rain drumming on the roof and windshield was the only sound in the car. They didn't say anything for a long time so after a while Haku spoke up.

"I don't want to sound disbelieving or anything… but…" She paused uncertainly, staring off out the passenger side window. Luka had taken the driver seat and Miku had hopped into the back before Haku could put a hand to a door so she had found herself in the front seat, and when she fell silent the pretty light blue haired girl's voice chimed from behind her.

"What's wrong, Haku-chan? You can tell us."

Still Haku hesitated before sighing and speaking at the window but loud enough to be heard. "If it's too over the line I apologize and you don't have to answer, but… if this was all a setup and you both told me such sad stories, was that… a part of the setup?"

Silence descended in the car and for a moment no one spoke, then finally Luka's voice floated over to her, low with emotion but not upset or anger at Haku. "I would never lie to you, Haku-chin. Everything I told you was the truth."

"Same for me." Miku's voice was equally low.

Haku glanced briefly to the side and shook her head. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have pried. I was just curious…"

"It's okay." Luka replied, still quietly.

"Well what I said to you both stands." Haku answered with a faint note of determination. "You are my first real friends I've ever had, and I want to support you both in any way I can." They smiled at her and she closed her eyes regretfully for a moment. "I just wish I knew how to do that. You both seem to have everything you need."

"There are other kinds of support besides worldly needs, Haku-chin." Luka replied gently, and Haku blinked as she felt a hand gently on her arm and looked around to see the idol gently touching her above the elbow. "Just be you, we're happy to have you in our lives just as you are."

"That's right!" Miku piped from the back seat. "Money isn't important, we certainly have that. Especially Luka-chin! That's not what we care about. We just want you around!"

Haku blinked. "Especially Luka-chan…?" What does that mean…?"

"You didn't know?" Miku asked incredulously.

"Miku-chan…" Luka said with a slight warning note in her voice.

The blue haired girl either didn't notice or didn't care. "Luka-chin is more loaded than most people could ever dream of!"

"Miku-chan, that's enough..." The warning in Luka's voice was growing and Haku felt a little nervous about it and she thought about trying to stop Miku but she was curious too so she didn't say anything and the blue haired girl continued on.

"The Megurine family name is huge in the business world. Luka-chin's parents were wealthy investors, and her grandfathers on both sides were bankers and financial backers, and it goes back further from there, ties back several generations. There are bonds and stocks and shares and all kinds of assets tied up in her name all over the place behind practically every major brand out there. Her family name carries so much weight she could probably buy half the city if she wanted to! She's the sole heiress to her entire family estate now! Why she even-! EEEEEEEK!" Miku cut off with a shriek and grabbed on to the back of Haku's seat, and Haku herself reflexively grabbed onto the door handle and put a hand out onto the dashboard as Luka suddenly cranked the wheel of the SUV hard and slammed on the brakes. There was a chorus of loud angry honking as people behind them had to rush around but they were pulled over by the sidewalk and the whole vehicle rocked briefly as Luka spun around to glare at Miku.

"I said that's enough!" The idol's angry glare wasn't directed at her but it was so withering that Haku shrank back just as much as Miku did from the intensity of those blue eyes now cold as ice.

A long tense moment of silence passed in the car with Luka glaring back at Miku and the blue haired girl fidgeting nervously on her seat before she finally dropped her eyes and mumbled an apology in an abashed tone of voice. "I'm sorry Luka-chin, I got carried away. I just…" she squeezed her eyes shut, embarrassment taking over. "I just like talking about you! You're such an amazing person and I want everyone to know it! I'm sorry!"

They sat there like that for another few moments before Luka sighed and turned herself back around to face forward once more. Wordlessly she started the car moving again but she kept casting these odd little looks sideways at Haku that she could just see out of the corner of her eye as she kept her gaze fixed out the window ahead of her. She watched the pattern the raindrops were making on the window before being wiped away by the windshield wipers every few moments as she thought about what to do. Miku was sitting in the backseat wilted in on herself with a dejected look on her pretty face and Luka was staring out the window so hard it seemed like a hole was going to form in the glass any minute. She wanted to smooth things over but she was worried if she tried it wouldn't be well received. But they had become friends after all… right?

Finally deciding to do something just as they pulled into a parking lot Haku waited until Luka had parked and cut the engine before turning to face the idol and gently laid a hand on her forearm. Luka blinked at the hand then up at Haku with a curious tilt of her head. "You ARE an amazing person." She told the pink haired beauty.

Luka blushed fairly at the compliment and shook her head. "I just don't want people to look at me and see money."

Haku's red eyes grew intense and she tried her best to bore her gaze meaningfully into the other girl. Judging by Luka's wide eyed expression it was having a decided effect. "I don't. I see the radiant woman who saved my life, the beautiful girl who befriended me and who has looked out for me these past weeks as my entire life has changed. You're kind and caring and wonderful and I already thought you were amazing before Miku-chan said anything about your family name and nothing I heard changed any of that in the slightest bit."

Luka's blush grew deeper and deeper until by the end her cheeks were practically glowing but she didn't avert her eyes. She was an intense and collected person, strong and assertive in her femininity and she didn't have a problem meeting Haku's red eyed intense gaze. "That's very kind of you, Haku-chin, but you give me too much credit."

Haku shook her head without breaking eye contact. "No, I don't think I do. I think I give you just enough credit."

"Me too!" Miku chirped from behind them as she lunged forward between the seats and put her arms around both of their necks in a group hug. "I think you're both amazing! And beautiful! And wonderful! And all that!" She giggled as they hugged and Haku found herself having one cheek pressed against Miku's shoulder and the other against Luka's neck. They were both so soft and smelled so good she lost herself in the moment before Miku pulled away, breaking the spell. "Now can we get this date underway?! I'm hungry!"

Haku's head whipped around and she knew her own cheeks must be looking like Luka's with an expression of surprise added to it. "D-Date?!"

"It's not a date!" Luka objected as Miku threw her door open to hop out of the car, turning back to grab a shiny purple paper bag stuffed with curly pretty packing paper from the floor of the back seat before shutting her door. Haku hadn't seen it before, she supposed that had been why the blue haired girl had been so keen to take the back seat.

"Sure it is! We're all out together at a nice place aren't we? What else would you call it?"

"Three friends going out for dinner." Luka muttered in denial as she got out of the SUV too, though her cheeks were absolutely crimson now. She shut the driver's door then opened the door behind her seat to retrieve a similar looking gift bag, this one silvery all over.

Haku opened her own door to get out, her own cheeks heated too, and Miku laughed. "That's what a date is!" She skipped around the car toward the idol and pressed in close, pinning Luka against the front of the vehicle. She peered up at the idol with an intensely green eyed stare. "Are you saying you wouldn't date me again?"

Luka swallowed hard, then let out a warning hiss and shook her head. "Stop acting weird, Miku-chan. You're still underage, besides."

Miku's face lost a little of it's mirth and she murmured, "Only for a couple more weeks…" Her eyes blazed with intent, with emotion, with anticipation, with barely contained eagerness.

Haku averted her gaze as they stared intently into each other's eyes, and for some reason she felt a pang of jealousy in her chest. Go out 'again'? They had gone out before? Why should she be jealous? Jealous… of which one…? That was absolutely ridiculous. Nevertheless, the burn of envy was there and she couldn't push it away. She couldn't understand the feelings she'd been having today, or for the past week in general, but she knew whatever was going on was none of her business, but... she also knew she couldn't ignore it. How contradictory… she had no idea what to do about it. All she could tell for certain was that the thought of her two friends dating both made her warm and cold inside simultaneously, like she had the happiness of warmth in her middle but her veins were all ice. Suddenly she felt a hand on her shoulder and she just barely kept herself from jumping as she spun around to look up at Luka, the slightly taller pink haired beauty looking at her with a concerned expression. "Are you okay, Haku-chin?"

Haku nodded and heaved an internal sigh of relief when her silvery voice came out in an even neutral tone betraying none of the war going on inside her. "I'm fine. Let's go in."

Luka nodded slowly then led the three of them into the restaurant. It was an American style cuisine place and everything around was adorned in western decor. Straight legged and backed chairs against plain tables, booths with padded seats and backs, lamps hovering over the tables suspended from the ceiling. The artwork was all the general sort of pictures and wall hangings, no flowery patterns or prints on anything. Haku wasn't a fan of the western of style anything, but the decor spoke of authenticity and expense and she appreciated the effort the other two were going to. They were seated by the hostess at a round table in a corner, and once they were seated Miku and Luka bent to put the gift bags beneath their seats for the time being as Haku reached for a menu and looked over it with a blank expression.

"Oooo, I'm going to have the giant burger!" Miku declared after opening a menu of her own, pointing at the picture in the center of the first page of a massive hamburger with five patties loaded down with every sort of topping imaginable.

Luka made a face at the picture. "Gods Miku-chan, how are you going to even fit that in your mouth?" Miku leaned toward the idol and opened her mouth as wide as it would go making a loud "AAHHH!" sound, which for the mostly petite pretty blue haired girl wasn't really all that wide. Luka made a disgusted noise and pushed her playfully back, but Miku just giggled and after a moment Luka did too.

"What are you going to have, Haku-chan?" Miku asked, leaning over toward Haku to look at her menu with her. "The giant burger too?!"

Haku couldn't stop a corner of her lip from curling in disgust. "Ew. Miku-chan, gross."

Miku's eyes widened. "Gross?! Why gross?! It looks amazing!"

"It looks like seven thousand calories." Luka put in.

"Well yeah! That's kinda the point!" Miku said as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"You aren't worried it will make you fat?" Luka returned.

"Well sure if that was all I ever ate, but I only like to cut loose with something like this once in a great while for fun, so no big deal!" Miku seemed very pleased with herself. Luka just shook her head disdainfully.

"I'll try this. Arufuredo?" Haku pointed at a noodle dish with a creamy looking white sauce. Luka looked over at her menu and nodded.

"'Alfredo.' I've had that before, it's good." The idol told her.

Miku blinked at the pink haired beauty. "Is that an English word? It sounds odd."

Luka shook her head. "No it's Italian, but English uses it as a borrow word."

Haku felt her eyes widen in surprise as she regarded the gorgeous idol. "You speak English, Luka-chan?"

Luka closed one eye and regarded Haku with the other. "Yes…" she said carefully.

"She speaks French and Spanish too!"

Haku's eyes widened even further. "Wow! I'm super impressed Luka-chan! You're amazing!"

"It's not that impressive really. Miku-chan is learning English too, and speaks Chinese besides." Luka countered.

"Really?!" Haku exclaimed. Miku looked embarrassed at the attention and may have said something about it but their waitress came to take their order right that moment.

Miku ordered her giant burger in an excited tone, and Haku asked for the alfredo. Luka ordered a seasoned fish fillet, and the waitress gave a small curtsey and took their menus before walking away. Haku started to turn back to Miku to ask about speaking Chinese, but as she did she caught sight of another table she could see on the other side of the restaurant which held two guys having dinner together. Two guys holding hands and feeding each other. Haku immediately turned her head so she wouldn't look like she was staring right at them and her cheeks began to heat in embarrassment. Her reaction caused the other two girls with her to turn and look, but even as they did voices drifted over to her ears from a different table, this one only two spaces away from them with a man and woman seated at it older than them if short of their middle years. Haku shifted her face so she could watch them out of the corner of her eye inconspicuously even as their conversation reached her.

"Disgusting." The man pulled his eyes away from the gay couple across the restaurant and let his fork drop onto his plate with a noisy clatter and then shoved the dish away from himself. "I didn't realize this was that sort of establishment." He lifted a hand to signal the waitress.

"Yes, quite disturbing." The woman agreed having been watching as well, and though she set her own utensils down more gently the look on her face was no less revolted than her companion's. "It's that sort of thing that makes some public places so unsavory. No one wants to see that."

The waitress moved up to their table and the man threw down a credit card to bounce on the table a few times, nearly sliding off the edge before the waitress managed to catch it. "Cash us out, now. I won't sit here and watch such a shameful scene. I expect a percentage to be deducted from our check for this awful spectacle."

The man continued to make a nuisance of himself and Haku couldn't help getting more and more upset. Her ears were burning and her face was red from anger as much as embarrassment, and having to listen to his tirade was making her feel worse by the moment. Something about this felt plain wrong to her but she couldn't figure out what it was, but whatever the emotions rolling through her this was affecting her on a deeply personal level, so when the man finally signed his check and stood to go she could not stop herself. Turning in her seat she watched him heading for the doors and right as he passed a cart full of dirty dishes and half eaten food beside half full glasses of liquid she pursed her lips to let out a low note. The frequency was well outside of normal human hearing perception range but it was still low to a Vocaloid, and she aimed it with enough precision to hit only his foot. As he was passing the cart his toe seemed to strike the ground as though he'd stubbed it and he flapped his arms wildly as he toppled forward face first into the cart. Half eaten food and sauces smeared over his head and shoulders even as the cart tipped over on top of him, and as he went down in a chorus of angry shouts the awful harpy following behind tripped on him and went down in the mess atop him. Haku whirled back around to sit straight in her chair and covered her mouth with both hands trying to hide the extremely self satisfied smile she couldn't keep off her face, but Luka and Miku were both watching her with wide eyed surprise and smiles of their own they were also trying to cover. At sight of the others' mirth she couldn't stop the giggles from overtaking her, and after a moment they felt into the same gigglefit as she, and the three of them couldn't stop laughing the entire time it took for the angry man and woman to pick themselves up and storm out of the restaurant in a huff.

After they finally got their giggles under control the other two looked up at her, and Miku tilted her head a bit. "Why did you do that, Haku-chan? Not that I disagree for sure, but it's not like those guys were close enough to hear."

Haku shifted her gaze to look over at the guys still feeding each other apparently having not noticed the situation at all, or if they had they hadn't paid it any mind. Haku's expression took on a slightly sad cast and she propped an elbow on the table to rest her chin in her hand with her fingers splayed over one cheek. "But I could hear…"

Her friend's expressions turned both sympathetic and curious, and Luka looked as though she wanted to reach out to Haku but she didn't. Instead she just said, "It's not like it's anyone else's business anyway."

"That's right!" Miku said, her hands gripping the table as she looked from Haku to Luka and back again. "If a couple of people want to be together, that's for them to decide, no one else."

"A couple of people…" Haku mused, another vague sort of thought forming somewhere in the shadowy recesses of her mind that she couldn't quite make take shape enough to analyze right that moment. "I just think it's sad… it seems like if you go against what's considered acceptable… I mean, who wants to have to deal with that all the time?"

Miku gestured at the happily oblivious guys. "Clearly it doesn't bother them, they're in public and not showing any sort of care about what others think of it. If you love someone, wouldn't you be willing to put up with anything for them?"

"No matter what you do in life," Luka said slowly and carefully, her crystal voice gentle, "There will always be those who approve, and there will always be those who don't. There's no way to make everyone happy all the time, so we can all only do what we want to do. We can only follow our hearts."

"Follow our hearts…" Haku mused, shifting her gaze back to the other two girls.

"That's right!" Miku giggled and bent down to retrieve the bag from beneath her chair. "And my heart is telling me I don't want to wait to give Haku-chan her present!" She held the shiny package out in offering to Haku. "Happy late birthday, Haku-chan!"

Haku blinked as she suddenly understood what the two of them had been scheming all night and then smiled at them. She might have guessed, but no one had ever given her a surprise party of any kind before, not even a casual dinner out like this. "Thank you." She said, reaching out to take the bag. She tilted it gently to let some of the stuffing fall out before reaching in to withdraw two pairs of long thin strips of painted and treated wood intricately carved in floral patterns, and when she realized they were paper fans she unfolded one gently to reveal purple material stretched between the dark painted wood that was printed with yet more floral designs. No, not paper, this was a thin gauzy material meant to be more resilient than paper, and they were longer than the average fan size. She looked up at Miku wide eyed. "Miku-chan, these are absolutely lovely, thank you so much!"

Miku giggled at the look on Haku's face and gently picked up the other one to fan it out too. The pair were twins, identical copies in every way, and Miku fluttered it at Haku. "I want to see you dance with these some time, Haku-chan! You strike me as the kind of woman who could do marvels with a fan or two!"

Haku nodded her agreement, "I will, thank you so much."

Luka bent to retrieve the silvery package beneath her chair and held it out next with a warm smile. "Happy late birthday, Haku-chin." She looked on the verge of saying more, but then just smiled as Haku reached out for the bag. Tilting it gently the same way she had done with the other one she carefully withdrew a wide flat velvet covered jewellery box about the size of her hand. Her eyes widened as she drew it out carefully and opened the lid with a little snap of springs setting in it's hinge. Inside on a velvety cushion rested a wide band of silver with little diamonds studded around the edges. Her red eyes went even more round and she set the box delicately on the table and looked up at Luka. The idol had an anxious look on her face, though why she should be anxious was beyond Haku. Miku was staring wide eyed from Luka to the bracelet and back again and her expression was suddenly very pale. She looked bothered by the gift for some reason but the expression was gone and a moment later.

"Luka-chan…" Haku breathed. "This is absolutely gorgeous, but-"

"You don't like it?" Luka's face fell and the anxiousness in her expression increased.

"What? No! I mean, yes! Yes I love it, but it's too much! I can't accept such a wonderful gift." Haku tried hard to keep her own anxiety out of her voice.

"Nonsense." Luka replied. "I want you to have it. You gave me the sunglasses after all.'

"That's different." Haku muttered.

The idol's eyes narrowed. "How is that different?'

Haku opened her mouth to answer, then froze. She couldn't think how it was different, couldn't come up with any way to differentiate them that wouldn't sound hollow. After a few moments of silence she heard a loud sigh of annoyance from Miku and turned in time to watch the pretty light blue haired girl reach out to grab ahold of Haku's arm. "For crying out loud Haku-chan, it's your birthday gift and I told you before, this isn't as big a deal to Luka-chin as it would be to most people. Here, I'll help." Gently but firmly Miku stretched Haku's arm out toward the pink haired beauty and Haku found herself in the position of accepting it or yanking her arm away, and since she didn't want to be rude and hurt her friends' feelings she let Miku stretch her arm out in Luka's direction. Luka lifted the diamond studded silver bracelet from the box and gently slipped it on over Haku's knuckles. She had to squeeze her fingers in a compact sort of way so the circle of metal would fit, but that was good because if meant it wouldn't accidentally slip off her hand very easily.

Luka beamed. "I was right about the size, that makes me happy."

Haku didn't know what to say so she picked up the fans with the hand wearing the bracelet and clutched her gifts to her chest. She was overwhelmed with emotion and didn't know how to adequately explain to them what this meant to her. "Thank you both. This means the world to me." It didn't seem like enough but by the way their faces lit up they could understand by the emotion in her voice. Their smiles were so bright and radiant she felt the warmth from earlier spreading through her again and she fidgeted on her chair. She gazed at the two beautiful smiling faces before her and suddenly she felt tears stinging her eyes as the emotion welling up within her made her chest tighten and became too much in that moment. The other two girls' expressions turned to worry.

"Haku-chan? What's wrong?"

Haku managed to smile at them even as a tear slid down one of her cheeks. "Nothing. Nothing at all. I'm just… I'm so happy I met you both. I wish I had the words to tell you how much this means to me…" She trailed off uncertainly at repeating herself but kept smiling, and they seemed to understand, their return smiles softening sympathetically but still earnest. They spent the rest of the evening just talking and laughing, bonding over their meal and dessert afterward, which turned out to be some expensive looking truffles that she tried very hard not to wonder too obsessively over how much the other girls had spent on her. It was odd, she'd grown up never having to worry about money when it was being practically thrown at her by her parents, but now that others were spending their own on her it made her somewhat uncomfortable. Still, these two were important to her, and she would find a way to make it up to them. Somehow she would… somehow...


	6. Vocaloid Academy Chapter 6

_The women's bathroom was foggy with steam clouds making it difficult to see anything beyond a few steps away from herself as she pressed her body against the corner of the wall where she was hiding, but Haku could clearly see the two girls on the edge of the giant tub. The light blue haired girl sitting on the edge of the tub sideways to Haku had long locks that she normally had separated into two side twintails and an slim yet curvy figure. Haku couldn't see much of the other girl beyond pink glistening hair flowing down her back and fanning out in the water around her that would otherwise have hung just a bit lower than her behind but the rest of her athletic frame and ample curves were hidden by the tub's wall and her face was buried between the other girl's legs. Miku gasped under Luka's attentions, her back arching and pushing her chest forward as she reached a hand down to slide into Luka's pink hair so she could hold her face in place as she moaned low and hot._

" _Oh Luka-chin, that feels so good." Miku said breathlessly, making Haku bite down hard on her big knuckle to keep from moaning along with the blue haired girl. There was no pain, no bite mark, but she didn't notice._

" _Mmm, you taste absolutely wonderful, Miku-chin." Luka replied, her crystal voice somewhat muffled by where her face was pressed to Miku's groin._

" _What if someone comes in?" Miku gasped as she began to roll her hips against Luka's face, her perhaps slightly bigger than average breasts heaving._

" _No one is going to come in." Luka muttered against Miku's crotch and began to lick faster. Miku moaned louder and Haku bit down on her knuckle so hard there should have been blood or something but there wasn't. She watched the two beautiful women in their passions as Luka licked away at Miku, the light blue haired girl panting and moaning and arching her back more, her side twintails swaying about in the air behind her as she rode the idol's face, and the pink haired beauty held on to Miku by the hips, her slim fingers pressing Into the soft flesh of the other girl while she slowly and sensuously plumbed the depths of Miku's folds with her tongue._

 _Haku felt hot all over as she watched, the excitement at the display as potent within her as the jealousy she was feeling. She both wanted this but didn't at the same time, like fire and ice running through her simultaneously. Even still the heat was just too much to handle and she slowly slid a hand down between her thighs. With a dismissing thought her clothes disappeared in a puff of smoke to leave her as naked as her friends. Her ample breasts heaved as she let out a moaning gasp of need as her fingertips brushed her damp slit, her nipples standing up as she stared at the scene before her._

" _My my, Haku-chin," Miku gasped as Luka licked at her. "How naughty of you to watch us like that."_

" _I can't help it…" Haku moaned as she slowly rolled a finger around her nub. "You're the Queens of the Universe."_

" _We know.' Luka's muffled voice said between Miku's legs, her blue eyes just visible over the blue haired girl's thigh. "You're the one that crowned us after all, Haku-chin."_

 _The crowns on their heads glinted in the low ambience cast by the billions of tiny lights of the stars in the ocean that was the pool of the universe the two rested in. They bathed in a thousand thousand suns, and Haku gazed down at their beautiful faces framed between her breasts as they looked up at her from between her legs as she perched on the edge of the galaxy pond, twilight descending all around them on the frozen forest they sheltered within, the trees and boulders all covered in pristine white snow._

" _We can all only do what we want." Miku said as she leaned in toward Haku's moist center, tongue extending with a look of anticipation on her face._

" _All we can do is follow our hearts." Luka said as she leaned in as well, her own tongue sliding past her lips in excitement._

 _The tips of their tongues drew slowly in toward her folds and Haku gasped and panted eagerly awaiting their touch… then the Universe exploded, stars and planets flying everywhere as the galaxy was covered in snow falling from hundreds of tree branches disturbed by the blaring of a siren. Beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep…!_

Haku jerked awake with a start as the beeping of her alarm finally pierced the haze of sleep and she tried to reach up to her nightstand to dismiss the alarm on her iPhone but found one hand tangled in her sheets and the other wedged between her thighs. There was no one else in her room so early in the morning to see but she still blushed furiously and parted her legs slightly and slid her damp fingers out from between her legs, then unwrapped the blanket from her other arm so she could move again and finally managed to shut the stupid alarm off. Throwing back her blankets she immediately regretted not slipping out of them instead. For one thing her room was cold since she had left the heater off; she did most nights because she liked cold weather and there was something about being all toasty warm wrapped in a blanket while it was cold outside of your bed that was extremely comforting to her. For another thing she was soaked and she caught a whiff of her own scent. In reality her excitement was barely enough to dampen her panties but with the emotions of the dream still surging through her she felt like she were sitting in a puddle.

She had never had a dream like that before and she was both intrigued and ashamed at the same time and didn't know what it meant, and it had been about her two friends besides! Wasn't that the sort of thing you were supposed to dream about some boy you liked or something…? Well she couldn't see herself liking some random boy, but then again she couldn't see herself liking some other girl either. She had grown up so sheltered she'd had to learn about these sorts of things from movies and animes, and while most forms of media she had seen had certainly cast homosexuality in a negative light she had never really understood why, and now… now she was having wet dreams about other girls. Two of them! Did that mean she was…?

Catching another whiff she winced and decided to focus on the task of cleaning up. It wasn't an unpleasant odor necessarily but she didn't want anyone to smell it on her and think about what she had been doing, in her sleep or not they wouldn't know. A pang of mortification ran through her just thinking about someone finding out and she hurriedly stood up from her bed and peeled off her damp white patties and then the loose white t-shirt she had slept in. She eyed her laundry hamper for a moment before balling up the panties then wrapping the shirt around them into a bigger ball before shoving the bundle down as far down into the side of the clothes bin as she could then covering it with other dirty things like yesterday's jeans and shirt. She hoped that would keep the scent from spreading any further. Next she dug out several towels from the bottom of her wardrobe and wrapped herself in them, then picked out a clean set of underwear, a lacey matching black bra and panties, and a pair of well cut black designer jeans and a midnight purple long sleeved shirt. After a moment she gathered up her thin velvety black hand gloves as well. The bite mark on her knuckle had long since healed in the few weeks it had been since her belated birthday dinner but she had sort of grown to like wearing them. The last thing she did after gathering her clothes, wallet, keys and phone was to pull the drapes on the window aside and crack it open a little. It would be even colder in her room later but she needed to air it out. Turning to the door she left her room for the bathroom.

The corridors of the Vocaloid Compound were deserted at this hour of the morning; with the sun barely beginning to peak over the horizon the light filtering through the city and in through the windows wasn't yet enough to cut the darkness of the early morning entirely. Haku usually woke up on her own a little before her alarm went off but she always set it just incase. She liked to be up before everyone else so she had a chance to prepare herself for the day and for interacting with everyone. A few moments of peace before the chaos of the day began. It was her favorite time of day and usually she relished it, but this morning she felt rushed as she entered the bathroom and stepped over to her cubby. Retrieving her soaps and shedding most of her towels she only took one with her into the bathing area for modesty sake and stepped over to a stool in front of a shower head. She sat down, turned on the water, doused herself to rinse off, then waited for a moment for it to heat up. She soaped herself off while she waited then once it had warmed enough and steam was rolling up around her she angled the shower head up toward herself to rinse, then let out a gasp of surprise as an unexpected wave of pleasure washed through her middle when the warm water tickled her groin. She shuddered and pointed the water away from herself, realizing that the heat from her excitement hadn't gone away as she had come to the bathroom, it had only sort of receded a bit. She'd never expected the water to have that sort of effect pointed straight against her like that! Looking around quickly to make sure no one had come in when she hadn't been looking, she cautiously tilted the showerhead up again… and let out a moan of surprise and pointed it away once more. This was naughty and indecent! She had played with herself before of course but never like this, never in so public a setting, never where she might get caught! But those two girls she had seen in here before had… and in her dream Luka and Miku… And she was still so hot… so warm all over..

She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to will the heat to fade, tried to get her excitement to recede, but it wouldn't. She couldn't get it to go away and even though she was concerned about getting caught she found herself too curious to ignore it. Slowly, ever so slowly, she turned the water back up toward herself. Maybe if… maybe if she was just… quick about it? It was still early, no one should be about yet after all… The water came up against her slit and she moaned quietly as waves of pleasure began to roll through her from her nub, and she squirmed and fidgeted around on her little stool as she rotated the shower head about trying to get at the most tender spots. She didn't know what to think about while she was doing this; it usually helped to envision something while she did it, but she couldn't think of anything in specific that- Suddenly the faces of her two friends bloomed into her mind and she gasped as the pleasure seemed to surge up within her. They were both so beautiful, so radiant, she squeezed her red eyes shut and focused on getting the best possible angle with the shower head while replaying some of the images from her dream in her mind. Their faces, their bodies, those bright and piercing green and blue eyes, long flowing locks of light blue and pink hair, Miku as well proportioned in her smaller curvy way as Luka was ample and soft. Mostly though she focused on how they made her feel, how they had saved her and accepted her and treated her so well, so kind and so attentive and always trying to make things better for her. Her first real friends she'd ever had, and more if she could ever figure out her emotions regarding them, why she spent so much time thinking about them and worrying over them. The jealousy was there too, as it always was of late when she thought about them both together, another thing she couldn't explain, but she did her best to ignore that as she worked at focusing on what she was doing. Her dream had wound her up more than she had realized, and her body cried out for release. She was warm all over, so hot in her center, so hot...

"Haku-chan? Are you in here already?" Haku let out a loud squeak and dove down to a crouch below the level of the half wall clutching a hand to her mouth to stifle more noise just as Miku's head popped out around the corner from the changing area. "Haku-chan?"

"Maybe she's not in here Miku-chan. Those could be old clothes." Luka's voice drifted in from around the corner.

Haku gasped and panted, her chest heaving as she gulped air around her palm pressed to her face trying to calm down from the edge of panic she found herself at. Her cheeks were on fire and her heart was thundering and she felt like she was having a hard time breathing.

"But she wasn't in her room, and there's water going in here." Came Miku's voice again sounding a little closer than before. Was she coming closer?! Nononono! She'd see her! She'd KNOW!

"We could check the cafeteria." Luka suggested, her voice sounding clearer now too as though she had come into the bathing area, and Miku's footsteps were clearly audible.

 _They are coming closer… they are coming closer! No! Nononono!_ Haku's mind raced frantically and she began to hyperventilate, sucking breath in hard through her throat in great heaves as she struggled desperately for air in the midst of the sheer mortification building within her. If they caught her playing with herself she thought she would die on the spot! What had she been thinking anyway?! Daydreaming about her friends while doing THAT?! Daydreaming about other girls while doing THAT?! What was wrong with her?! She felt like such a gross disgusting perverted sleazeball! She couldn't let them find her! She couldn't! Couldn't…! Let…! Them…!

"Haku-chan!"

"Haku-chin! Wake up!"

Haku's eyes fluttered open and she stared up at Miku and Luka leaning over her with worry etched all over their faces. They both wore nothing but towels and even laying on her back on the tiled floor of the bathroom she couldn't help but admire them. Wait, laying on her back? She tried to sit up and the other two took hold of her arms to help her upright. She glanced around to find the stool she had been sitting on turned over and kicked a couple of meters away and her bottles of soaps and shampoo and oils and the like all spilled out all over. She looked around to her friends and grimaced as she felt a lump throb on the back of her head.

"What… happened…?" She asked.

They both shrugged and Luka replied first, "We found you laying on the floor with the water running. We're not sure how long you were there."

"You look like you fainted, Haku-chan. Maybe you had the water turned up too hot or something? You're red all over."

Haku's blushes redoubled but she gave a small shrug and hoped they took it for the heat. "That must have been it…" She mumbled and internally heaved a massive sigh of relief that they completely misunderstood. Something must have shown on her face though because Luka narrowed her eyes at Haku, a considering look in the pink haired beauty's expression. Haku blushed harder and couldn't stop herself from averting her eyes in embarrassment. What had she been thinking?! The shame burned through her, hot and painful. If they knew what she'd been doing, what she'd been thinking about them, dreaming about them... they'd hate her for sure...

"You're always up so early, Haku-chan! Why is that? If we hadn't set our alarms early today so we could get a head start to get ready for tonight we wouldn't have caught you in the bath!" Miku gushed as she began helping pick up Haku's scattered bath things and they both began setting them into her hand basket that Luka retrieved and held out for them.

So that was why they had come in on her early… Haku hadn't thought they'd be up for some time yet. She wished she could get her cheeks to cool off, but she thought that was hopeless being naked with the other two girls wearing only towels. She felt so ashamed but she still couldn't stop picturing them in her mind. "I… I like the early morning. It's my favorite time of day…" She muttered.

"Really? That's interesting! I like the early afternoon best, when the day is really starting to pick up! Everything gets so energetic then, so lively!" Miku continued, moving herself over to an adjacent stool and shedding her towel so she could rinse off too, and Haku averted her eyes hoping the pretense of overheating was still covering her blushes. She caught a glimpse out of the corner of her eye on her other side of Luka doing the same, her ample curves as enticing as Miku's athletic build, and Haku tried to focus on the shower head in front of her. It almost seemed like the more she thought about it the more it popped up in her mind, that now that she had noticed she couldn't get away from it. No! Focus. She had to focus. She still had soap on her that was starting to dry a little and she needed to rinse off anyway, but she carefully kept the water from spraying directly against her mound.

"I like the nightlife." Luka put in, "When everyone has finished for the day and is looking to relax. When an idol's work is best received."

Miku gave a nod at that, "Me too! There's nothing better than when someone appreciates your art, whatever its form!" They fell silent for a few minutes as the three of them washed and rinsed themselves, cleaning off and making sure they had no soap left anywhere before they moved to the tub. It seemed to Haku that what she had done should be obvious to the other two but they gave no sign of it so she supposed it was just her shame making her overly sensitive to the point of imagining things. Even still she kept her eyes forward and focused on cleaning herself and nothing else.

Once they had finished washing and rinsed off for the final time they all moved to the huge tub to soak. Haku immediately wedged herself into a corner and sank into the water all the way up to her nose. Miku submerged herself entirely for a brief moment, her light blue hair loose and unbound making a sort of underwater cloud around her before she popped back up and out of the water to sit on the very edge of the tub to air dry, leaning casually back against the wall with only her feet and lower legs in the water. Luka found herself a jet in the tub near them both and turned it on with a hum of motors whirring to life then sat against it angling it up at her back. She sighed happily and sank in so the water just covered her full breasts.

"Ah that feels nice." The idol sighed happily and rested her arms out to either side of herself up on the tub's rim.

"I'm so looking forward to the festival tonight!" Miku said glancing back and forth between the other two girls. "Aren't you both? I can't wait to go out and buy new yukatas!"

"Don't you have a yukata?" Luka asked turning only her head to look at the other girl, then paused a moment before adding, "Two of them?" Her long flowing pink hair floated in a puddle in the water around her.

Miku waved a hand dismissively. "One is for fancy parties I usually only wear when my parents tell me to, and the other one is more spring colored than fall. I need something in…" she tapped a finger against her lips thoughtfully. "Something in greens I think, maybe with a leaf pattern in oranges and reds."

"That sounds more Christmasy than fall colored." Luka remarked idly.

Miku made a face. "You don't wear yukatas at Christmas! Besides, the green and red thing is more of a western cultural view isn't it?"

"Maybe." Luka allowed. "Nothing says you can't wear yukatas at Christmas." She shifted her gaze to Haku still sitting submerged to her nose in the water. "Do you have a yukata, Haku-chin?"

Haku blinked and shook her head. She had hoped that would be enough answer as being almost completely in the hot water had finally begun to relax her but the idol kept looking at her expectantly, so she straightened up enough so that her mouth and chin came up out of the water. "No, I've never been to a festival before."

"What?!" Miku exclaimed sitting forward on the edge of the tub so abruptly that the motion did interesting things to her soft curves and Haku started blushing all over again. "How can you have never been to a festival before?! That's crazy!"

"Miku-chan, you're being rude." Luka told her.

Miku blinked and winced a bit giving Haku an apologetic look. "Sorry Haku-chan, that just really surprised me. I mean it's really unusual to have never been to one isn't it?"

"My parents were never around to take me, and I never wanted to go alone…" Haku mumbled into the water as she sank back down a bit. The looks of sympathy on the other girls' faces made her think that one or both were going to try to hug her but the fact that they were all naked stopped them, for which Haku was internally grateful. She didn't think she could deal with them pressing up against her right then… No matter how much she might like the idea…

"Well then we'll just have to make this festival extra special and amazing for you!" Miku declared as she leaned back against the wall again.

"How do you plan to do that?" Luka asked wiggling around in her spot to get a new angle on the water jet against her back. "It's just a local festival, it won't be that grand. I don't even think there will be fireworks."

Miku sat there for a few moments as she thought about it, her lips pressed together in thought in a cute expression of concentration. Everything about Hatsune Miku was cute and the pretty light blue haired girl herself seemed unaware of it. Finally a sly smirk curved at the corners of her mouth. "Oh, there will be fireworks." The other two stared at her curiously trying to puzzle out what she meant but before either could come up with the words to ask Miku lifted her legs clear of the water and spun around on her rear to hop out of the tub. "Come on, let's go! I wanna get some breakfast before we go shopping, I'm starving!"

Luka sighed regretfully as she stood up out of the water and switched the jet off, and the way she bent made Haku spin around to hide the sunset on her cheeks. "You're always starving, Miku-chan. Honestly I don't understand how you can eat so much and still be so thin." Haku waited until the idol had stepped out of the tub and retrieved her towel before she herself did the same.

Miku was already crossing the bathroom to the changing area but she cast a playful glare back at Luka. "I don't eat anymore than you do!"

Luka shook her head in mock disgust. "It's what you eat that makes it so unbelievable."

"What?! I haven't had a monster burger since Haku-chan's birthday party!"

They kept up their playful banter the entire time the three of them were getting dressed and Haku couldn't help being happy that the they were all clothed again. Maybe now she could get her blushes under control. Miku parted her hair more up on either side of the top of her head than out to the sides this time, causing her twintails to curve gently back today rather than straight down by her arms, and Luka pulled her cascading pink locks back with a bow in a ponytail high on the back of her head. Haku's bow was a velvety purple that matched her shirt today and she tied it behind her neck so the bow would poke out to either side as usual. They gathered up everything they needed and headed out of the bathroom, Miku in a black skirt with teal frills and a grey sleeveless shirt and Luka in a black shirt and skirt with gold trim that trailed to her ankles but which was slit up the sides to her hips. They both wore black leggings under their heeled shoes, and when they were standing out in the hallway they stopped to look at each other.

"There's a boutique not far from here that I like and I know they have yukatas." Miku offered . "I've looked at them a few times, they're really pretty."

Luka nodded in agreement, "Sounds like a good enough plan, we can get a car then go there."

"After breakfast?!" It wasn't really a question but Miku's chime like voice picked up toward the end as though it were and she tilted her head and upper body at Luka in a questioning way that was just as cute as it was intent.

The idol couldn't hold back a giggle and she nodded, her flowing pink ponytail swaying behind her a little. "Okay yes, after breakfast. Let's go." She started to turn to head for the garage with Miku on her heels but Haku reached out a hand to stop them. They both turned back with looks of curiosity and Haku pulled back a bit.

"Could we…" She paused a moment and pulled her outer calm around herself with a surprisingly small amount of effort. Their eyes widened at her for some inexplicable reason she couldn't determine but she let it go and started over. "Can we walk? It's nice out and I feel the need to stretch my legs." In truth she just wanted to work out some of her pent up energy leftover from the events of the morning, but her legs really did feel up to a walk, and she wasn't lying when she said it was nice out. They didn't seem to think along the same lines however.

"Nice?!" Miku said incredulously. "Haku-chan it's like three or four degrees outside! It's freezing!" She shivered where she was standing as if just the thought could make her feel it from where she was inside the Compound.

Haku gave a small shrug. "I like cold weather. It makes warming up seem… sensual, I guess."

They looked at her with odd looks on their faces then Miku looked up at Luka and the pink haired beauty shrugged in response before turning back. "Okay, Haku-chin. If you want to walk, we can walk."

"But it's cooooooooooold!" Miku actually stamped her foot, causing the other two to blink in surprise then break down into a gigglefit which they couldn't stifle the whole way back to their rooms to get coats with the pretty light blue haired girl whining the entire time.

"Miku-chan, it's okay, we're not going far right? Then later after the festival we can all sit before a nice warm fire with hot cocoa."

Miku stuck out her lip in a pout. "Will you share a blanket with me?"

Luka tilted her head and narrowed her eyes but after a moment she nodded. "Okay. We'll all share a nice big fluffy blanket. Better?"

Miku tilted her head for a long moment before finally letting her pout dissolve. As quickly as that she was bouncing and bubbly again as she turned to her bedroom door. "Kay!"

Luka and Miku traded their leggings for thicker warmer ones but still black so as to match while providing warmth and they zipped slick windbreakers up over themselves, Luka's a vibrant shade of pink even brighter than her hair and Miku's a blue-ish green somewhere between her eye and hair colors. Haku retrieved her cute black and purple parka and once they were all ready they made their way down the corridors to the front entryway and exited the compound out onto the sidewalk. They glanced around then turned to Miku who gestured to one side down the street. "This way."

The morning was just beginning to come alive with light spilling over the horizon and splashing against the sides of buildings. The air was chilly but not biting no matter what the weather apps on their phones said. There was a gentle breeze but no outright wind and Haku turned her face into it with a smile every time it gusted passed her. There was just the tiniest sting to the chill on the tip of her nose and edges of her earlobes, but she didn't mind that at all. It was the perfect temperature and the perfect time of day and she relished every moment of it as they walked along down the street.

"You know, I think she really does like it out here." Miku said in a surprised tone of voice, and Haku turned her head around to see the other two watching her as they walked with small smiles on their pretty faces.

"She really does." Luka agreed, her smile widening as Haku ducked her head in embarrassment and she added, "How adorable."

Haku couldn't think of any response beyond a muttered "I wasn't making it up." She thought she sounded petulant but the other two just laughed.

"Don't pout, Haku-chin, even if it is cute. We're just happy to see you happy, that's all." Luka reached out and patted Haku's arm affectionately.

"That's right!" Miku chirped in agreement, then shivered and hunched in on herself. "I'm still cold though…" she muttered, but her sullen look was just as cute as everything else about her.

They walked on in silence for a time and Haku went back to enjoying the moment. She was happy to be out in this sort of weather but just as happy to be on a walk with the company she had. The presence of the other two girls made her life infinitely better, no matter what had happened that morning. She found herself inspired by the entire setting and as they walked and the emotions began to really build up within her she felt her body begin to vibrate on some minor level and a moment later a soft gentle breezy tune began to flow out of her that perfectly matched the mood of the morning. The tempo even matched the pace of their steps and the other two smiled at her to see her mood so light.

The music was infectious and Miku was the first to begin stepping to it, simple forward steps to keep walking along but still dance steps. A moment later Luka joined in with a giggle, and when they both looked back at her with their faces so bright with mirth Haku couldn't help but follow suit. Laughing and giggling the three girls danced down the street to the music the entire way to the restaurant, hips swaying and waists twisting and arms rotating about the entire time. When they finally reached the cafe that was on the way to the clothing store Haku reluctantly let the music die out. It was easy enough to let people assume you had an MP3 player or an iPod with a speaker while you were walking along the sidewalk but inside it would be harder to pull off and rude besides.

The cafe was a small but trendy looking coffee and pastry kind of place and a pretty barista was at the counter who greeted them warmly when they entered. "Good morning! What can I get for you?"

"I want a caramel mocha cappuccino latte grande!" Miku threw her fist up in the air and the barista stared at her like she was an alien or something.

"Miku-chan… that's like four different kinds of things." Luka chided her with a patiently bemused note in her crystal voice. "I don't think you need that much sugar anyway. You're hyper enough as it is."

Miku's face fell but her fist didn't, staying in the air above her head. "Oh. Then can I have a sweet black tea and a breakfast biscuit and a box of pocky?"

Luka put her hand to her eyes in a long suffering expression. "Yes, That's fine." She turned to the barista. "I'll have the same please."

"Me too, please." Haku added. She was somewhat intrigued by Miku's apparent need for Luka's approval of her food choices but didn't say anything.

In short order Luka had paid for their simple breakfast and they were sitting at a small table. Almost as if by happenstance Luka ended up sitting beside Haku on one side of the table with two chairs facing two across from it leaving Miku to sit facing them, but Haku caught a brief yet sly self satisfied smile cross the idol's face. She also noticed that Miku saw it too, the the pretty blue haired girl's expression grew hard for a moment before she noticed Haku looking and changed it to a smile. But it had been there, she was sure of it. She'd seen that look before today too. Whenever the pink haired beauty got too close to Haku or paid her special attention Miku's entire countenance shifted, her expression darkening just a bit before she forced it back. Haku couldn't figure out what was wrong, and it bothered her not knowing what was eating at her friend, but she wasn't ready to broach the subject yet, and certainly not in public.

As soon as they got their tea Miku guzzled hers down and asked for a refill. The barista giggled at her but Luka tsked. "Miku-chan if you drink that fast you'll get hiccups."

"Sorry." Miku muttered without really sounding like she meant it. Something had definitely bothered her, but Haku was suddenly distracted from wondering about it.

Beneath the table she felt the faintest brush against the right side of her right foot. Luka was sitting to her right and their feet would have been next to each other, but… were they touching on accident…? Or…? She had an urge to look up at the idol but thought that might break the little spell. Then again if their feet were touching on accident and she moved at all her motion might be enough to draw Luka's attention to the fact and she might move her"s away. … unless she has put it there on purpose and was waiting to see how Haku would react…? If that was the case should she do something…? She didn't want to upset or offend the pink haired beauty, but if Luka was trying to make some sort of contact… Her mind was running in circles and she gave herself a little shake. She didn't want to upset the other girl but she didn't want to let the gesture pass if it was intentional either. She had to respond but in just as subtle a fashion to be on the safe side. Carefully, slowly, she slid her foot sideways a tiny bit to press a little more firmly against Luka's, then she held her breath. It was a silly gesture and she felt a little ridiculous but it was all she could bring herself to dare, all she could do to hope it was enough. After a long pause that Haku thought must have lasted for three or four eons she felt the gentle touch of the idol's knee bump delicately up against hers. Haku's red eyes widened and she couldn't stop herself from looking up at Luka now, and got a bright smile in return. It had been on purpose! She only just barely caught the tightening at the corners of Miku's eyes in that odd expression she made out of the corner of her eye.

They ate in silence when their breakfast came, Haku and Luka trading glances and smiles every now and then as they kept their knees together and Miku very pointedly not looking at them at all, her green eyes roaming about the store in any direction but theirs that was possible. It was actually rather embarrassing to Haku but now that she had such attention from the idol she found she didn't want want to give it up, and Luka made no effort to break the contact. It was a warm feeling working its way around her middle and part of her wished they could stay like that the rest of the day, festival that evening or not. She thought it might almost be worth it to miss it, but she thought both of her friends might be disappointed, so she tried to just focus on enjoying the moment while it lasted.

Abruptly Miku stood up and stuck her unopened box of pocky in one pocket of her windbreaker. "Excuse me a moment." She muttered and walked off in the direction of the bathrooms. They watched her go and exchanged concerned glances but neither knew what it meant or what to say so they just finished their tea in silence. The quiet stretched out for long moments until Miku came back, fresh faced and bouncing while softly humming a tune like she didn't have a care in the world, but Haku wondered. They watched their friend seemingly flit about the coffee shop idly while messing with her phone, but something about the way the pretty blue haired girl was still not looking their direction was telling. Luka glanced at Haku and she shrugged in response, and the idol turned to look back for a moment before standing up from the table. Haku sighed regretfully as the contact of their legs broke but she stood up too. There was a little tray of nick nacks for impulse buys at the counter and Luka moved over to it and put herself between them and the tray so they couldn't see what she was doing. Money exchanged hands, the register rang out a sale, and a few moments later she was ushering them outside. Once they were on the sidewalk again the pink haired beauty turned to the other girl.

"Here, Miku-chan. I want to give you something, if you'd like to have it that is." As confident as the idol was in herself and her femininity her cheeks still colored faintly as she held out a cute blue and pink braided cell phone strap with a gold colored heart charm on the end of it.

Miku stared at it with such a look of happiness and glee it was hard to say whether she was happier at the attention or at getting a gift from Luka, but when she reached out for it she caught Haku's eye standing on the other side of the idol from her and her hand froze in mid air. Her expression changed from glee to consternation and she turned partially away. "Thank you, Luka-chin, but…" she swallowed and shook her head, her light blue twintails swaying slightly. "You… should probably give it to Haku-chan…" Haku's eyes widened in surprise and she opened her mouth to object but before she could say anything Luka held up her other hand. A second braided cell phone strap dangled from it, this one white and pink twisted together with a silver star charm.

The pink haired beauty smiled slyly and held each out to either side toward their intended recipients. "I know they're just silly straps and if you don't want them I'd understand-"

Miku made a strangled noise in her throat and snatched the strap intended for her, but no faster than Haku snagged hers. Luka beamed at them as they both took out their phones to attach their straps and Miku glanced at Luka. "Oh. I should go back in and get you one." She turned to go back in but the idol stopped her.

"They didn't have any others that really matched. It's fine though, let's go look at yukatas."

They followed along behind Luka as she turned to continue heading down the street they had been coming down before stopping for breakfast. Miku gave directions as they went but kept casting sidelong glances at Haku while fiddling with the strap now dangling from her phone. The golden colored heart made a very faint tinkling sound whenever it shook or twitched at the end of the strap, and Haku wondered if hers did too. She'd put hers back in her pocket without really messing with it because she didn't want to break it on accident. Her hand drifted down to her pocket though and her fingers gently traced the outline of the edge of the strap pressed between her iPhone and the outside edge of her pocket. It was just a cell phone strap, why did it make her feel all warm inside? She felt silly but she wasn't sure she cared.

The boutique Miku directed them to was a small-ish place compared to some of the strip malls the two had taken her to thus far but Haku thought it was set up purposefully to convey an air of traditionalism. The roof had old style woodwork and slate tiles and the curtains over the windows looked hand woven. Old style paper lanterns were spaced hanging from the eaves of the roof overhang and even the door looked hand carved and gilded in it's frame. Haku thought it was one of the most charming little buildings she had seen. She followed the other two inside and the scent of incense smoke filled the air, a pleasant aroma of some sort of spiced squash she thought, like a pumpkin maybe. The inside was just as traditionally decorated as the outside suggested with floral and animal carvings and friezes all over the walls. More paper lanterns hung from the ceiling and even the multitudes of clothing were displayed on mannequins that were only roughly the right shape and all slightly varied in sizes making her think they were hand carved as well. For some inexplicable reason she expected the shopkeeper to be some old wrinkled crone, yet the woman behind the counter was somewhat pretty and while she looked as much as ten years older than her customers that still put her just shy of her thirties. Dresses in a simple yet elegant purple kimono with a white ocean spray pattern she gave them a sight bow.

"Good morning and welcome, your patronage honors me. May I help you find anything, or are you perhaps just interested in browsing?"

It made sense that the owner of a clothing boutique wood be well dressed and it was Luka who moved forward a step first, her natural confidence making her the unspoken leader of their little triad. Haku wished she knew how the idol did it, being so determined and sure in herself without being in the least abrasive or arrogant. She spoke softly but firmly, a calm certainty that everything was in hand. Haku envied the pink haired beauty.

"Good morning, we're happy to look at what you have. We're interested in some new yukatas for the festival tonight." Luka's crystal voice made the shopkeeper perk up a bit and nod.

"Of course, Megurine-san, it would be my pleasure to help you find something suitable for yourself and your friends." She folded her hands before herself and gave a little bow, and Haku's eyes widened in surprise at the recognition. The other two girls didn't seem to think it was anything out of the ordinary by their nods of acceptance, though Miku's gaze took on a very slight scowl for some reason that wasn't immediately obvious.

"Thank you. What would you recommend?" Luka asked.

The shopkeeper led them around behind a few displays to a back wall which was lined with racks and display mannequins all showing some of the most beautiful yukatas Haku had ever seen. They spent the next few hours being shown different types and styles and cuts of the elegant dress robes and trying on a few when one seemed to especially go well on one of them according to the other two. They spent long enough in the store that Haku stopped paying attention to the time though it was always in the back of her mind, and by the time they had finally narrowed down their selections it was well into lunch time. It seemed to her that it was a good thing the other two had planned an early start for this, but she supposed they would know how to go about such things. Haku had very little experience in group shopping trips so the thought had never occurred to her when Luka and Miku had been discussing it over dinner the previous night.

She was pulled from her reverie by a low moan from the pretty light blue haired girl. "Come oooooooooooon Haku-chan, pick one! I'm starving!" She complained in a sulky tone.

The idol rolled her eyes. "You're always starving."

"I could waste away at any moment!" Miku declared with a fake look of alarm.

Luka shook her head. "It's a wonder you're so skinny the way you eat."

"Hey! That's not very nice!" Miku tried to look offended but she was obviously fighting back a giggle at the playful barb.

"I like the white and black one." Haku interjected to keep them from going too overboard.

They both turned to look at her and Miku pointed at the black and blue one. "I thought this one was really pretty, I bet it would look great on you Haku-chan."

"I think it suits you better." Haku replied trying not to show her embarrassment at the compliment.

"Eh? You think so?" Miku peered at it in consideration, hey green eyes shining in the low lantern light. "But I was thinking of a green and red one."

"Well I want the purple and pink one." Luka declared gesturing at it. "I'll take it please. And we'll take the other two. They can sort it out later."

"As you say." The shopkeeper gave a small bow and began boxing up the garments.

Once they had paid and were carrying their boxes back to the Compound Haku let her mind wander while her two friends chatted about the beautiful clothes in the boutique Miku had taken them to. The store and everything in it had been very lovely but she was more interested in enjoying the breeze again. With the onset of the afternoon the air had warmed up quite a bit but it still felt nice on her cheeks. She unzipped her parka to let what little wind there was gust against her better and thought about the air currents, about how atmospheric eddies swirled around the globe and stirred or howled through mountains and foliage as the earth rotated in space. That image sort of hung in her mind for a few minutes, a mental image coming to her as though looking down at the world from up above it. Then as she considered that image and let the thoughts swirl in her mind she suddenly frowned. Stirred or howled…

"What's wrong Haku-chin?"

Luka's crystal voice brought Haku's head around in surprise. They were almost back to the Compound she had been spacing out for so long. "Ha? Oh, uhm. Nothing, really…"

Luka frowned and Miku pointed accusingly. "I saw you frowning!"

Haku blinked and shook her head, "It's not a big deal, I'm sure it's nothing." They kept staring at her with dubious looks, clearly not satisfied and expecting more, and she sighed. "I'm just confused by something that just occurred to me."

"What is it?" The idol asked.

"Well…" Haku let her gaze wander as she thought about how to phrase it, not even sure if it was really important enough to be bringing up. "It's just what your dad said about the detection equipment." Haku said aside in Miku's direction though she didn't turn her face back around.

"Eh?" Miku blinked at that. "What about it?"

Haku gestured at the giant antenna sticking up off the top of the Compound as they stepped around the corner and the building came into view. "Well it's just… I'm not sure if sound can even travel in the vacuum of space…" The other two girls exchanged confused glances that she just caught out of the corner of her eye and she gestured vaguely at the sky. "Sound waves have physical properties, vibrating through the air and bouncing off of objects. Even a sonic vibration has to obey the laws of physics."

"This seems a really random thing to bring up all of the sudden, Haku-chin." Luka said getting a nod of agreement from Miku as they approached the front gates. "What made you think about it?"

"Well…" Haku said, her silvery voice soft and tentative, "Director Hatsune said the other day that we got much of our equipment from government contacts in the space program, and that's why it was capable of detecting such high sound frequencies in the terahertz ranges."

The other two girls traded careful looks, the idol's hands frozen outstretched toward the gate handles. "So if sound actually can't move in space…"

"Then where did the equipment actually come from?" Haku finished for her. "And if it really did come from the space program, what were they doing with it in the first place?"

"Wait a second!" Miku exclaimed as the pink haired beauty pulled the gates open and they headed in through the front entryway, the iron bars slamming shut behind them as they entered the Compound then the building itself. "Are you calling my dad a liar?!"

"What?!" Haku exclaimed feeling heat rise in her and her pulse quicken at the sudden confrontation. "No!"

"It sure sounded like that to me!" Miku looked really mad, her cheeks flushing dark with anger and her green eyes narrowing. The iron will normally hidden beneath her silky exterior was showing and this time it was directed at Haku.

They had stopped just after turning down the corridor that would lead them passed the cafeteria to the dorms and Haku felt her cheeks reddening as well, but for her it was more from worry that she had upset her friend as opposed to the other girl's anger. She clasped her hands together in an imploring fashion as she turned toward her. "No that's not it! Really I was just thinking about the discrepancy, I promise!"

Miku shifted her yukata box to tuck it under one arm so she could plant her fists on her hips to stare at Haku. "How could there be such a discrepancy without my father being to blame?"

Haku wrung her hands as her anxiety mounted. "I… I don't know? Maybe… he wasn't aware of it…?"

The pretty blue haired girl snorted disbelievingly and her chime like voice began to rise. "He's the head Director of the entire organization, how could he not know?"

Haku felt her eyes sting with sudden unshed tears and she opened her mouth to object again but couldn't get anything out beyond "That wasn't what I meant…"

Luka laid a hand gently on Miku's arm in a calming and placating sort of way but the blue haired girl didn't take her eyes off Haku. "Miku-chan, relax." Her tone was quiet yet firm in contrast to the shorter girl's rising in anger. "Haku-chin clearly wasn't trying to point fingers at anyone. She just thought something was odd, that's all. It's okay."

They stared at each other for several tense moments and Haku felt a tear slide silently down her left cheek but she couldn't move. She hadn't been trying to upset her friend, she'd just been talking about something odd she had noticed was all. Finally after what seemed forever Miku bent to the side to set her box on the floor then straightened up, took a step forward, and wrapped her arms around Haku. She gasped in relief and felt a tear fall to land on her friend's neck but she returned the hug eagerly.

"I'm so sorry Miku-chan, I really didn't mean-"

"No, it's my fault, I overreacted. Please forgive me."

Haku clung to her friend, still upset to have unintentionally hurt one of her first real friends she had ever had. "Nono, I should have phrased it better, I'm sorry."

"It's okay Haku-chan, really." Miku's voice still held a slight edge of iron to it, clearly she was still a little angry, but she clung back.

"Oh you two, come on, we can't stand here all day." Luka chided them, but her crystal voice held a note of amusement in it as well.

They parted with light sighs and Haku wiped at her eyes while Miku retrieved her box from the floor, then they continued down the hallway in silence. They stepped into the cafeteria to get a snack before going back to their rooms but found the vending machines all empty. Miku let out a massively over dramatic sigh. "Ugh! Daddy REALLY needs to figure this place out!" She gestured around at the pitiful little room. "We should have stopped at that coffee shop on the way back! I'm so hungry!"

Haku giggled despite the upset still bubbling in her chest but it was fading and the laugh helped. Luka just shook her head and ushered them both back into the hallway. "It's fine, there will be plenty of food when the festival starts."

"That's HOURS away though!" Miku complained loudly, and kept complaining the whole way back to their rooms. "I'm starving now!"

"I think the schedule for the events said it actually started mid afternoon, so we only have an hour or two to wait." Haku interjected. "It's just the main events that aren't until this evening."

Miku's face lit up. "Really?! We can go now?!"

Luka giggled and nodded. "See? We have just enough time to get changed and go."

Miku threw a hand up into the air and cheered, almost dropping her yukata box before catching it with her free hand. "Yay! Let's go, we can change in my room!"

They followed the pretty light blue haired girl to her room and Haku trailed behind a little bit trying to keep her breathing steady. They weren't going to change in their own rooms? She supposed it was normal for female friends to change together, but… what about girls that were… attracted to each other…? That had to be it or why would she dream about them like… like that? Gods please don't let her blush around them during the changing! They would be so grossed out if they realized…! … could this… really mean she was a… lesbian…? How was she supposed to know? Maybe it was just them…? Because they had been so kind to her and spent so much time together with her these past weeks…? No, she'd been excited when she'd walked in on those other two girls in the bathroom to… hadn't she…? She was so lost in thought she walked right into Luka's back as the idol was stopped waiting as Miku opened the bedroom door. The pink haired beauty let out a grunt.

"Oof! Haku-chin, what are you doing?"

'S-Sorry! I was… I was just thinking… I'm sorry."

Luka might have said something but Miku swung her bedroom door open and skipped inside, placing her yukata package down on the edge of her bed. The blue haired girl's room was as cute as everything else about her. The furniture itself wasn't really much different than what was in Haku's own room, but there were blue and green lacy frills everywhere, even on the edges of the seafoam pillows at the head of the canopied bed, of which there were many, including one that looked like it had a permanent crease in the middle of it where it bent. Maybe that was the pillow Miku hugged while she was sleeping. There were any number of stuffed animals about the room too, and Haku found them all endearing; she liked stuffed animals too. The only difference in the furnishings was a keyboard on a stand against one wall, which she eyed curiously as she came in.

Haku pulled the door closed behind herself as she was the last one in. Setting her box on the bed beside the other two she watched them flip the lids of theirs open and did the same. Miku's black yukata had circles and six pointed stars and flowing lines in various shades of blue all over it with an occasional purple butterfly that made it almost look as though the butterflies were flying in space even though the designs were more geometric than constellations, and the wide waist wrap was bright green. Luka's was a gradient from purple at the top to sunset colored orange at the hem, and it was designed with little bright magenta flower petals and blossoms trailing along it and it's waist wrap was blue. Haku looked down at her own yukata, shifting the dark red waist wrap aside. The slashes of black and white were so close together and alternated so much that it was impossible to tell whether the design was black on white material or white on black, but that was why she liked it. It could be taken either way which gave it a slightly mysterious quality.

"That will look so pretty on you with your hair and eyes, Haku-chin." Luka said over her shoulder and she looked up to see the idol beaming at her.

"Thanks, but…" Haku tried not to let out a sigh. "You don't... have to be polite about it."

Luka blinked at her in surprise. "Ha?"

Haku gave a small shrug. "I know I'm not really that pretty, so you don't have to pretend."

Both of the other two girls gaped at her incredulously, which looked really funny from Miku with her shirt pulled up half over her head. "Are you kidding?!" She chimed. "Haku-chan you're one of the most elegant and exotic women I've ever seen!" Luka nodded her agreement.

Haku turned her face down in embarrassment to stare at the yukata I front of her. "Can… can we just get charged…?" She asked quietly.

They got dressed in silence from there, the mood in the air awkward between them now, which at least made for an excuse not to look up from what she was doing. Able to hide behind that to keep her eyes downcast Haku pulled her shirt and jeans off in relatively short order after kicking her shoes to the side and began wrapping the black and white slashed cloth around herself. The fabric was silky smooth against her skin in a very pleasant way as she settled it about body. After she wrapped it carefully and had herself situated Haku picked up the waist wrap then stopped considering it in her hand. The other hand was holding the last flap closed, and maybe she could tuck it into place but it might come loose. She stood there staring at it wondering what to do. Then the waist wrap began to slip out of her hand and she looked up to see Luka pulling on it from the other end and smiling at her.

"Let me help you with that, Haku-chin." The idol was already wrapped and ready to go, and so was Miku who was turning to the side to get at something by her closet. After a moment Haku let go of the silky dark red waist wrap so Luka could take it up and lean close to wrap it around her middle for her, then stood behind to gently twist the ends into a bow at the small of her back. Then the pink haired beauty put a hand to her shoulder and turned her around toward where Miku was fiddling around at her closet. "We want to show you something, Haku-chin." The blue haired girl slid her closet door to the side to reveal a standing mirror and Haku blinked at it.

"It's a mirror." Why were they showing her a mirror?

"Look at yourself." Luka said, and Haku blinked and looked in the mirror. "I mean really look. Look at how beautiful you are in your yukata." After a few moments of studying herself, her snowy white hair, her red eyes, her full chest and round hips pushing against even the bulky garment under under the silky soft material, she had to admit the reflection did show a lovely sight. But she had never thought of herself as anything beyond plain before, and she shook her head at the uncomfortable feeling.

"No, it's just the yukata. I look good because of it. I know I'm not that pretty."

Luka snorted and Miku glared from beside the mirror. "No Haku-chan. You don't look good because if the yukata, the yukata looks good because of you."

The idol shifted her blue eyes from Haku to the other girl and asked Miku, "Miku-chan, do you think you're pretty?"

Miku gave a small shrug of one shoulder. "I'm told I am, but no, I don't think I'm any prettier than anyone else really."

It was an effort for Haku to keep from gaping at her friend. "Are you kidding? You're just about the cutest girl I've ever seen, Miku-chan!" She objected, causing Miku to smile back in response, her green eyes seeming to sparkle brightly.

"And I didn't think I'm particularly pretty either." Luka said, and when Haku opended her mouth to object the idol laid a finger across her lips to keep her from saying anything and went on. "It's natural to think of yourself as less than you are, but part of getting closer to someone is learning that they will see you differently. Part of trusting those close to you is knowing they are telling you the truth, not just being polite."

Luka let her finger drop away from her lips and Haku turned her red eyed gaze from one girl to the other and back again. Miku smiled encouragingly and Luka wore a gentle but intent look. Haku fidgeted a little nervously but finally had to ask, "You both… really think I'm pretty? You said it the other week too. You… both truly think so…?"

"Truly." Luka said, smiling now too.

Miku stepped forward to put a hand to Haku's shoulder. "I envy your elegance, Haku-chan. I wish I was more like you."

Haku shook her head, "No, you're both perfect just as you are. Beautiful and confident and so strong." She let out a sigh. "I wish I was more like you both, but I'm not strong. I'm always nervous, always worried. Even my name conveys my weakness."

"You're not weak!" Miku objected. "You're so serene and poised most of the time! Your self possession adds to your alluring exotic air!"

Luka was quiet a moment before finally pointing out, "The character for 'yowa' means 'weak' or ' frail' it's true… but it can also mean 'delicate' or 'tender'. Those are the meanings I associate with you, Haku-chin. Being delicate does not make you weak."

Haku started at them for a long time. She hadn't intended her outer serene calm to be anything more than a stage presence but now that she thought about it she realized it had become something more. She had adapted it to keep her nerves in check and as Miku had told her, one sided shifts to meet the other and now it was becoming a part of her. More than that though, they hadn't just been being polite at her birthday dinner when they told her…?

"You… really think I'm… pretty?" She asked, tentatively repeating herself while trying not to sound desperate for the answer. She'd never had real friends before these two, and she'd never had anything even approaching a romantic interest. This was all new territory for her, and she was surprised at realizing just how much she wanted to hear them say it.

"More than just pretty." Miku said, and oddly her cheeks reddened when she said it, though her voice remained steady. "Beautiful."

"Radiant." Luka added by way of agreement, her cheeks darkening too. "Elegant. Exotic."

Haku looked away, her own cheeks heating as well. Part of being close to someone was trusting them…? She would have to take their words on this. Though she had to admit, if privately to herself, that it did feel good to hear these things, especially from these two gorgeous creatures. "Thank you… both of you…"

They stood in silence for a few moments just blushing at each other before Miku finally broke the spell with a pout. "Can we go now?! I'm starving!"

Haku couldn't help but giggle at Miku's mock lower lip quiver and Luka rolled her eyes though a tiny smile quirked the corners of her lips. "I guess we had better go before Miku-chan wastes away."

Luka produced little handbags that mostly matched their yukatas to carry their cell phones and wallets and the like in, then they set out. The walk to the festival was significantly longer than this morning's walk to the boutique had been but Haku didn't mind even with Miku's grumbling about being hungry the whole way. The pretty light blue haired girl's complaints were beginning to shift in tone a little bit from playful to genuine but she kept pace with the other two just fine and bantered back whenever Luka poked fun at her for her eating habits. Haku didn't think the other girl ate that badly really, Miku was just more vocal about it, but then Miku was more vocal about everything in general so it wasn't really that unexpected. In the weeks she had been getting to know these two lovey women Haku had watched their behavior patterns, their likes and dislikes, their tendencies towards certain things, and she found them all endearing. Like the way Miku would sometimes play her keyboard when she needed some time to unwind or how Luka always seemed to know exactly what she was doing at any given moment even when something surprised her or caught her off guard. They were both strong and capable in their own ways and Haku both admired and envied them.

There was no real way of knowing when they were entering the festival beyond beyond the sudden increase in people and sudden decorations everywhere. Paper lanterns were hung all over in various designs and styles and artwork was displayed wherever a hook could be found to hang it from or a blank space on a wall to lean it against. Drummers and acrobats and all other sorts of street performers were visible plying their art at just about every corner of the festival area as well as fortune tellers and news criers and all sorts of other people. Candles and incense burned everywhere and street vendors had packed in every few meters to hawk every kind of food or sweet or drink or trinket that could be easily wheeled in a cart. Miku stopped at the very first one and bought a greasy looking meat skewer from an old man with a rack of them on a cart, then turned to try to get the others to have one. Haku winced dubiously and shook her head.

"Ew, Miku-chan, gross." Luka wrinkled her nose in disgust at the dripping meat as they walked further into that festival.

Miku shrugged and took a big bite of the first bit of meat on the skewer. She got all of two chews into it before the look on her pretty face turned from one of delight to disgust. For a moment she looked like she was going to spit it out and both the other two girls took a step back in alarm but Miku pressed the tips of the fingers of her free hand to her mouth to keep it closed and looked around frantically for a trash can. Haku spotted one and pointed and Miku ran over and spit noisily into it then tossed the rest of the skewer in after it.

"Yuck! That was so gross!" Miku complained as she came back wiping at the corners of her mouth with her fingers. "Ugh, I need to wash my hands!"

Finding bathrooms was a challenge but after some wandering they managed to get someone to point them to one in a building not far away. Being careful of her new yukata Miku washed her hands and face and they moved on. Other food vendors had better things to eat and they bought buns to nibble on. They bought a few pretty trinkets; ribbons and pins and the like which they stored carefully in their little hand bags. They stopped to enjoy the sights and the sounds as they moved through the crowds, watching a juggler for a while and listening a singer on another corner. Haku felt an urge deep inside her to join the singing but she resisted it. That wasn't the only urge she had to resist either. Whenever one or the other girl was beside her she had the distinct desire to take their hands in hers or to link arms or something. There were other people in the crowds holding hands, but they looked like couples enjoying their outing together, and Haku couldn't bring herself to do it. It's not like they were a couple anyway…

They spent hours walking around enjoying themselves and Haku treasured every moment. She had never done anything like this before and every time one of her friends offered her a snack or souvenir or anything she took it gratefully to savor every experience. The sights, the sounds, the smells, it was all so exhilarating she felt vibrant, energized in a way she never had before. She watched the people flowing around her, watched well dressed couples and groups of friends and even people by themselves just moving about having a great time, watched children running around playing with new toys or chewing on treats or the like and shouting with glee. Everyone seemed to be having a fantastic time and so was she. The memories of this night were etching themselves into her mind and she knew she would never forget a single second of it.

The evening came to a halt when they rounded a corner and found a little girl crying by herself huddled against a wall. She had short blond hair and Haku thought she was maybe twelve years old. There was no one close by, so with no obvious people to check with they immediately leaned down to talk with her.

"Hello there," Luka said gently and the like girl looked up in surprise. "What's the matter? Are you okay?'

The little girl's eyes went wide as she looked first Luka then Miku over, her expression one of awe until it found Haku's face and apparently her unnatural red eyes threw the girl off because she shrank back. Haku felt a pang of shame and drew back a little herself, but the other two girls saw the exchange and Miku reached an arm back to take Haku's hand as she addressed the child. "It's okay, we're all friends. I'm Miku, and this is Haku."

"And I'm Luka." The idol said with a warm smile. "What's your name?"

"R… Rin…" the little girl said with wide eyes still wet with tears.

Luka kept her smile for the girl in place and tilted her head. "That's a pretty name. What's the matter Rin? Can you tell us why you're crying here all by yourself?"

The girl let out a sniffle and pointed at a building a little ways down the street from them. "I got separated from my mommy. She was talking to some man who had really white skin and they went down that alley. I'm…" she gulped and fresh tears sprang up in her eyes. "I'm afraid to go look…"

Miku leaned a little closer smiling and held out a hand. "Why don't we take you to go look together? We'll make sure everything is alright." Haku wanted to chime in about it too but the little girl was still casting nervous looks her way so she kept back behind her friends and just tried to keep her outer calm in place.

Rin gave a small nod and took Miku's hand. "O… Okay, as long as you stay with me. You're all so pretty and cool… promise you'll stay?"

"Oh my god! It's Megurine Luka!" The shout broke through the night air to cause all of their heads to whip around. Several teenagers were approaching hurriedly having recognized the pink haired idol.

Miku made a face at the approaching crowd much like she had in the shop that morning when the clerk had recognized Luka, but Haku still couldn't quite read it. Luka turned to gesture down the street, "Go ahead, I'll catch up in a few minutes." Miku nodded and took Haku's hand with her free one, her other still holding Rin's, and they headed toward the alley. It seemed still and silent as they made their way up to it, shadows casting it in a foreboding darkness. Without missing a beat the pretty light blue haired girl went in first, and Haku stepped back to go last putting the little girl protectively in the middle. They eased their way down the alley looking for signs of Rin's mother.

"Miku-chan…" Haku murmured quietly, "This doesn't feel right…' She couldn't put her finger on exactly what was wrong but all of her instincts were on fire, like they were screaming at her to turn back as they reached near to the dead end of the alley.

Miku just nodded in agreement as she glanced behind a trash can they passed still looking for the woman. "I know, I feel it too. Just keep an eye out for-"

The only warning they had was the crashing sound of something heavy overhead, but for a Vocaloid that was more than enough. Haku pressed a suddenly squealing Rin back out of the way against the alley wall as a huge beam fell down toward them, like an overhang support of some sort from a rafter above. She glanced briefly up to see a woman with all black eyes looking down at them from a third floor balcony licking her lips hungrily but she returned her eyes to the matter at hand. Miku dodged back the other way but a second beam was already coming down. At that moment a man suddenly burst up from under a pile of cardboard boxes, a pale man with swirling black orbs for eyes. In the blink of an eye he stood, one hand gripping a stout stick. Haku cried out, "Miku, behind you!" But even as Miku was dodging back from the second beam the souldrinker swung his improvised club. There was a crack as wood met scalp and Miku went down like a sack of potatoes. Haku felt her insides go cold at the sight of red staining that light blue hair, momentarily stunned by disbelief. She felt like her world was coming apart, and for an instant she thought she would drown in despair. Then she screamed in wordless fury and threw herself at the man.

The souldrinker turned turned at her yell and Haku found herself facing a man much bigger than her and he was blocking her retreat down the alley besides. Rather than seem put off by her advance he turned to her eagerly with the expression of a hungry man staring at a gourmet meal and he came at her. Haku was taken aback for a moment as the fury within her was suddenly twined with dread and she froze for a moment in panic. Then right before the souldrinker reached her with an outstretched hand her weeks of training kicked in and she began to dance. A pulsing tune began to resonate from her body and she hummed wordlessly with it as she arched her hands over her head and popped a hip. His first grapple swung through air where she had been a moment before and she buffeted him back with a small sonic burst from the melody she was producing aimed out of one hand she brought back down, the sound vibration countering his punch as surely as if she had blocked it with her arm. He tried again, and again she gusted him back. And again. And again. Haku had no time for anything except twisting and pivoting and twirling for all she was worth. Whether this souldrinker was strong or all her training hadn't progressed her as far as she thought it was all she could do to keep him at bay, each sonic wave she emanated with each wrist flick or kick out as she danced barely enough to keep him from getting close to her. She wasn't strong enough to overwhelm him or do real damage. She lost herself in the dance, lost herself in the fight for her life. It was all she could do to hold him at bay, all of her efforts going in to surviving for another moment, then another, then another.

Haku had no idea how long she danced in the alleyway doing everything she could to hold this souldrinker at bay, all she knew was that she was all that stood between him and Miku, and Rin as well. She had no idea if Miku was okay but if she failed in this neither of them wound be. She didn't care what happened to her, she only knew she had to protect Miku. She was winded though, tired and panting for air. Every second she was still alive was a victory for her but each moment was more taxing than the last and she didn't know how much longer she could hold on. Then everything suddenly seemed hopeless as the woman she had seen in the balcony above appeared coming out of a side door in the building next to them. Despair welled up deep within her and she sagged dejectedly, faltering in her defense. That was it, she was beaten. She knew she couldn't handle two, this one had nearly sapped every ounce of strength she had. Luka was wrong, she really was a failure after all... _Miku…_ she thought, _I'm sorry..._

A loud high pitched note boomed down the alley with enough force to take everyone standing from their feet. Haku grunted as she landed hard on her left hip and scraped the palm of her left hand as she braced herself on landing. The two souldrinkers simply toppled over from the concussive wave before scrambling back up to their feet, whirling to face down the alleyway behind them. Haku let out a cry of relief at the sight of the pink haired beauty standing there with one hand propped on a hip in a standoffish stance, her pink flowing hair framing her pristine yukata clad form. The powerful Vocaloid glanced toward Haku, then her piercing blue eyes took in the sight of Miku prone on the ground, then shifted back to the two souldrinkers. She didn't say anything, didn't yell our cry out or even so much as scowl. She was cool as a mountain glacier, and as dangerous and implacable as a landslide, her blue eyed gaze cold and hard. The souldrinkers seemed to sense it too and after a moment of hesitation their nerves got the better of them. With snarls they both rushed her simultaneously, closing on her more quickly than seemed possible. Haku opened her mouth to shout but didn't have time to.

Luka pursed her lips and lifted the hand that wasn't propped on her hip. She gave an almost casual looking flick of her wrist and a note like a gong rang through the air accompanied by a shockwave of lightly tinted pink sonic energy which caught both souldrinkers in the chest and slammed them into the wall of the building behind them so hard that the bricks cracked and chipped from the impact. Their heads snapped back from the force of the impact to smack the wall and both of them slumped to the ground and were still. With the threat now passed worry finally spread over the idol's flawless features and she rushed over to kneel beside where Haku was still huddled on the ground having fallen beside Miku.

"Haku-chin! Are you okay? Is Miku-chan?!" She ran reached out to put a hand to Miku's shoulder but as her fingers touched the prone girl Miku's green eyes fluttered open.

"I'm… okay…" The blue haired girl murmured thickly. She tried to sit up but Luka pushed her back down with the hand still on her shoulder.

"Take it easy, Miku-chan." The idol admonished gently. Her blue eyes shone damply though she was keeping any actual tears from falling. "We'll get you back to your mom and make sure you're okay."

"Really I'm fine… it's not as bad as it looks…" Miku mumbled and reached up toward her scalp as though to touch it, then winced before her fingers even connected.

Haku couldn't stop a frown. "Really? It looked like he hit you hard enough to give you a concussion."

"It must have been a glancing blow or a bad angle or something." Miku said, pushing Luka's hand back softly and sitting up anyway, though she did lean on Luka's arm.

"It didn't look like it was glancing…" Haku started, her frown deepening.

Miku reached a hand up to Haku's cheek and brushed a tear away with one knuckle and Haku blinked. When had she cried? She didn't remember having done so. "I saw you defending me, Haku-chan, saw how much you cared about what happened to me. Thank you, you were wonderful."

Haku averted her eyes in shame, "No, I failed in the end, I-"

"Where's that little girl? Rin?" Luka interrupted and they all looked up.

The three of them looked around, but there was no sign of her. Luka stood and helped Miku up carefully and Haku ran to the end of the alley to look out but didn't see anything. She turned as the other two girls drew up beside her and shook her head. "She must have run off during the fighting."

"She was probably scared." Miku said, her voice beginning to sound a little less slurred.

"I guess…" Haku said, not really convinced of that, and eyeing the blood soaking through Miku's light blue twintails. A lot more blood than could be explained by a glancing blow she thought.

"Come on," Luka said taking Haku's hand even as she supported Miku with her other arm. "Let's get back to the Compound and have you examined and a clean up crew dispatched."


	7. Vocaloid Academy Chapter 7

_She couldn't move her head, or any other part of her body it seemed. She stood stock still and stared straight forward as Director Hatsune and his wife looked her over. Or was she laying flat on her back and they were looking down at her? It was hard to tell, she didn't seem to have any sense of directional orientation whatsoever almost as though she were floating in a void, but she could feel them poking and prodding at her bare body. Where were her clothes? She didn't remember undressing, or recall anyone else doing it for that matter, but it was alright, they were doctors afterall. She just wished she could see what they were doing. The only thing she had to look at was a blank whitewashed wall or ceiling, whichever was the case depending on which way she was facing. It was bright wherever she was though, that much she could tell._

" _I can find her access ports and connect just fine," Doctor Hatsune was saying, Mira's face bent low up near her head with her arms stretched out beyond the edges of her vision. "The problem is her access codes. She's programmed differently than the others." She could hear the tapping of a keyboard and the occasional click of a mouse. She wanted to see but she hadn't been told to move her head._

" _Did you try all the standard sequences?" Director Hatsune asked. Motsu's glasses were slipping a bit as he looked down at her side but as with his wife she couldn't tell where he was looking. She couldn't move, she hadn't been told to. She would have liked to have seen what they were doing but she hadn't been spoken to directly yet so she couldn't even help. The diagnostic cycle was running and there was little she could do._

" _Of course I tried them all." The doctor replied nonplussed at the question. "And I tried several of my own. I can't get access to anything more than her basic diagnostic subroutines." Her diagnostic and repair subroutines weren't locked, but almost everything else was. Repair systems themselves sometimes needed maintenance too, but they were read only to avoid tampering. She couldn't tell them any of that though; they hadn't asked._

" _What about her sensory patterns?"_

" _No, nothing. Everything is locked out. Why? Did she move or something?"_

 _A hand waved in front of her face and the director snapped his fingers at her nose but of course she didn't move or even look at the hand. She still didn't have control of her body unless specifically told to move or perform some task. So she remained motionless and silent, staring straight ahead. Or up. Whichever it was._

" _No, no reaction at all. Her sensory inputs aren't even functioning right now." He answered his wife. That wasn't quite true, but it wasn't a question_

" _Well that's the same as how the rest are programmes at least." She mused, peering intently at whatever she was looking at beyond the field of her vision. Whatever she was doing didn't please her though, that much was clear by the annoyed cast of her expression. "I just don't get, I should be able to get access. These codes should be valid!" They were valid she knew, but not for the accesses they were being used for. But that hadn't been a question either._

" _I suppose we could always open her up and analyze her chip directly…" The Director sounded dubious about that idea and she didn't like it either. It would mean a complete shutdown and there was a chance of permanence damage or data corruption that would potentially be uncorrectable. But she couldn't object in this state either, anymore than she could have moved on her own._

 _Apparently the Doctor had the same thought because she frowned in concern. "That… would give us more direct control, but…" She sighed and shook her head. "If we can avoid that I'd rather not. She's becoming very close to the others, and besides I'm not quite ready to give up yet. The more I study her the more I feel like I'm getting closer to cracking her code."_

 _Her husband nodded in acceptance, apparently not as ready as he'd seemed to the idea of opening her up. "Can you get into her BIOS at least?" The director asked._

" _Maybe… his wife murmured fiddling with something on her head. It felt funny but that was all, then the sound of a keyboard tapping filled the air again. "Yes, I can access it, but it's locked too. I can see everything but not change anything."_

" _Does it at least list an activation date or have a firmware version name or number?"_

" _Both," The doctor paused then an expression of surprise widened her eyes as she looked up to her husband. "Version three point one seven two. Activation date is only eight months ago."_

 _Director Hatsune shifted his gaze from where he was looking at her side to meet his wife's stare. "Well. At least we know_ _ **they**_ _are active. It's information we can act on at least." He shifted his gaze to look down at her more directly and a hint of sadness wrinkled the corners of his eyes. "Poor girl… I get the feeling this wasn't natural." She didn't know what that meant bifurcation as with everything else she couldn't respond._

 _Mira nodded then glanced to the side. "Her diagnostic cycle is almost complete, we need to either initiate another one or get her back to get her bed."_

 _The director pinched the bridge of his nose just beneath where his glasses rested on it. "Let's finish up for the night. Maybe we'll have more luck cracking her access codes after we sleep on it."_

 _They nodded in agreement to each other then the doctor pulled at something out of sight above her head, then everything went dark. Then a moment later the beeping started. Beep beep beep beep beep beep beep-_

-beep beep beep beep beep beep beep beep- Haku's hand came down on her iPhone with a slight smack. Her eyes didn't want to open and she murmured sleepily at her phone. There was no way it was time to get up, she felt like she had just lain down. There must be some mistake. Maybe her phone was broken? That had to be it. She'd need a new one, but that would be okay with everyone else since they hated her iPhone… she drifted back off with her hand still on her phone atop the nightstand…

...and woke up with a jolt of adrenaline, her red eyes going wide as she fumbled her phone upright to look at the clock. She'd nodded back off for almost an hour! Haku glared at her phone as though this were all it's fault. She wouldn't be late for her dance lesson but she had no time to bathe or eat now. The early morning was her favorite time of day but she had missed out on it today it seemed. She let out an annoyed sigh and pushed herself up out of bed still blinking groggily. Maybe she could get a nap later but for now she dressed in her studio workout outfit, quickly brushed her cascading white hair smooth then pulled it back with her favorite black bow, then rushed out of her room pausing only long enough to snatch up her handbag and water bottle on the way out.

Haku managed not to yawn more than once or twice throughout her lesson which she thought was doing pretty well for how tired she felt, but she kept up with the pace Hibiki set and moved along with the dance practice. The Odoru no Budo was an exacting martial art but highly rewarding at the same time. Even at it's most demanding she always drew satisfaction out of simply performing the steps and the movements, the various ducks and twists and pivots and turns. It was deceptively simplistic yet at the same time endlessly complex. She hadn't thought so fondly of it when she had first started so many weeks ago but it had a way of growing on you, or she had acclimated to it, one or the other. And her teacher definitely helped, that was for sure. Hibiki Mokoto was as one with the sheer art of this material art, completely and totally in the element at all times. The training was intense but always fun because of her instructors amused and patient attitude. Today she even managed a couple of sonic waves strong enough to knock a heavy sand filled exercise ball around, though the thing did bump a table leg hard enough to knock it over, though that in and off itself could be considered a sort of progress. Toward the end when they had a little dance spar match Haku was pleased with herself when she managed to disrupt all but two of the sonic bursts her teacher aimed at her.

"Very good, Yowane-san! You're getting better and better all the time!" Hibiki's tenor came out in an approving tone thick with the usual amusement as their session came to an end at last and Haku flushed at the compliment. The Vocaloid dance instructor didn't give out praise often so it was always deserved when offered but Haku still had a hard time accepting kind words.

"Thank you…" She muttered and turned away, perhaps a bit too quickly, and moved toward a table where her small black handbag and water bottle sat. Their time was up but she still felt like practicing. She was tired; quite apart from her poor night of sleep she was always worn out after three or four hours dancing and producing sonics each morning, but ever since that night in the alley she was desperate to get stronger, desperate to prove she really wasn't weak.

Hibiki moved over to lean on the wall beside the table, tight leather dance outfit whispering with the body movement. "Is something troubling you today, Yowane-san? You seem distracted."

Haku let out a sigh and popped the top of her water bottle to take a drink. Once her throat was wet she blinked her red eyes a few times gathering her thoughts. Hibiki never shied from her unnaturally colored gaze, which was one reason she had come to like her instructor so much these past couple of months. Most other people found red eyes unnatural and disturbing, even if most assumed it was some sort of fashion statement achieved through colored contact lenses they still looked two or three times or stared at her too long. At least, she assumed that's what most people thought. It's what she would have guessed of someone else were it not her. "I just… feel like I'm not getting anywhere. Luka-chan and Miku-chan are so strong, but I can still barely stagger someone. Is it really supposed to take so long, Mokoto-sensei?"

Hibiki smiled and put a hand to her shoulder as she turned toward the door of the dance hall they used. "You can barely stagger a souldrinker or another Vocaloid, but by normal human perceptions you can do incredible supernatural things." She started to open her mouth but Hibiki wasn't done. "Yowane-san, believe it or not you truly are progressing quite rapidly. I hear the testing chamber scored you at thirty-seven times normal last week, yes?"

She shuddered at the thought of that awful spherical chamber, so stuffy and enclosed and confined. It gave her the jitters every time she had to go in it. "Yes, but-" Haku began, but her instructor cut her off gently once more.

"Hatsune-san and Megurine-san have been Vocaloids for over two years, Yowane-san. I have helped guide dozens of others in their paths. Please trust me when I say you're doing remarkably well. Now, run along and get some rest, I'll see you tomorrow."

She opened her mouth to say more then nodded. "Thank you, Mokoto-sensei." She got a smile and a wave back as she left the dance studio, her black nylon leggings and loose white shirt tucked into it both whisking slightly as she walked. They were designed for ease of movement as much as functionality and she liked wearing them, even if she only got to for a couple of hours each morning. She was doing well in her progress was she? It didn't seem to her like that was the case, but she couldn't exactly judge by any established markers. It wasn't like they had milestones or time frames mapped out or classes full of other students she could compete with as a gauge. She really would have to take her teacher's word on it.

Turning down a different hallway after leaving Hibiki's studio she went to the opposite end of the adjoining corridor across the tee intersection of the hallway and found the last studio there empty. This one was her favorite because it gave a nice view of the park that lay beside the Vocaloid Compound on the next block. When it had been nicer outside in weeks past she had spent time in that park reading or tinkering on her phone or even dancing a little if there weren't too many people around. The weather had begun to deepen from the chill of fall to the cold of winter but even lacking many leaves the natural beauty of the bare branched foliage was soothing to her.

Moving over to the empty table set against one wall of the room Haku set her water bottle down then unzipped her handbag. Withdrawing two slim beautiful dark wood carved fans she set them aside a moment then took up her phone. It took a little bit of digging on the internet but she found a few videos online about fan dancing which she watched through once each. She picked up and unfolded the intricately carved and designed floral pattern fans carefully and thought about how beautiful they were. Looking at them made her think of Miku, who had given them to her for her birthday. She missed her friend but the pretty light blue haired girl was out chasing a souldrinker or else she'd be around. Unless she was out shopping on her own or something. And Luka had meetings with her manager today so Haku was alone for the afternoon. She sighed at that but there was nothing she could do about it. The three of them had been spending almost all of their free time together for months now, sharing their thoughts and feelings laughter and tears, but if she'd had her way she'd be with one or the other of them if not both every waking hour, but she knew that wasn't possible. Their absence ate at her though, like she was missing a part of herself, of her heart. She gave herself a shake and tried to focus on the videos.

Once she had seen the videos she found all the way through at least once she set them to repeat, propped the phone up against her bag so she could see it from a couple of meters away, then backed up a little bit with her fans and began working on emulating the various fan flutters and dance steps they showed. The videos weren't tutorials, but Vocaloids were creatures of impulse and intuition afterall, and she found her instincts helped to guide her in the lack of actual instruction. So long as she could see their steps she could try to duplicate them, and she worked at it for a long time since she had the afternoon to spare on her own. The dance steps themselves were easy enough to emulate with all the training as a Vocaloid she'd been receiving these past couple of months. The hard part was the fan tricks. Popping a light weight paper fan up to twirl in mid air at just the right angle so wind resistance didn't send it off in some random direction was not as easy as it looked, especially when her fans kept folding on their own mid spin. Ultimately she paused her videos to just try the fan tricks over and over, practicing snapping them up over her head and catching them when they came back down, wincing every time she dropped them for fear of damaging them.

She didn't realize how long she had been practicing for when sudden movement out of the corner of her eye caught her attention and she turned to see two girls entering the practice studio talking to each other. One had red hair with pigtails twisted into downward pointed cones that didn't quite brush her shoulders and an athletic build wearing a simple white t-shirt and pleated red skirt, and the other had short cut green hair and was a little taller and curvier than her companion wearing a teal shirt and blue jeans. It was the same two girls from the bathroom that one morning… They came to a sudden stop when they realized the studio wasn't empty and blinked in surprise, and having their gazes on her when she thought about the other morning made her flush furiously. The red haired girl didn't give any sign of what she was thinking or feeling, regarding Haku with a neutral even gaze, but the other girl smiled apologetically.

"Oh, uh, sorry! We didn't realize this room was in use." Her gaze took in Haku's workout clothes and fans and she turned to go. "We'll leave you to your practice."

They didn't recognize her, she could see the lack in their eyes as they began moving away. Then they hadn't seen her that day! Relief flooded through Haku so intensely she let out a little sound. They turned back curiously at the noise and suddenly Haku had a thought, a half formed idea that popped into her mind payday vague but seemed good. She didn't know what was going on with her emotions regarding Luka and Miku, couldn't seem to get a handle on exactly how she felt about them, but she needed answers. Luka had been making little gestures towards her every day since their contact in that coffee shop, a casual hand brush here, an accidental hip bump there, and Haku was starting to think there might be something going on, but she didn't understand what to do about it or how to tell for sure what the idol was doing. She had tried to look up information online on the subject but searching general questions like 'how do two girls flirt' and 'how to know if you're a lesbian' or other similar things had brought a whole host of perverted websites that gave only dirty pictures and no real answers. The few web pages she had found on the subject that really discussed it were all just comment boards with people leaving their opinions; a mass of random thoughts that were so jumbled together as to be just as unhelpful as the naughty sites. But these two girls were obviously already together… at least they must have more knowledge than she did since they were doing… that sort of thing with each other. If she was friendly toward them maybe she could talk with them about it eventually…?

"Please," Haku said and folded her fans up. She pulled her outer calm serenity around herself and offered a smile. "Join me if you'd like. I'd be happy to share the space with you."

"Really?! You're sure it's okay? Everywhere else is in use! That'd be so nice of you!" The green haired girl gushed. "We've been looking for somewhere to practice singing, but with the rain starting up everyone is coming inside to get out of the weather so the afternoon is getting busy around here!"

Rain? Afternoon? Haku glanced out the window and saw it had indeed began to rain. A look at the clock on the wall showed mid afternoon. Suddenly her stomach let out a loud rumble and she realized she'd not only missed breakfast by oversleeping but had accidentally skipped lunch too. She wanted to go find food but she really wanted to talk to these two first. She opened her mouth to say something but a sudden huge yawn made her jaws creak and she stuck a hand over her mouth to cover it.

The green haired girl giggled, her laugh just as bubbly as the rest of her. "Must be going around! Or maybe it's just that kind of day?"

"I'm sorry?" Haku asked when she could speak again.

"Oh, the yawn! We passed Doctor and Director Hatsune in the halls earlier and they looked like they needed naps too! She was yawning and his eyes were half shut even walking! I guess running this whole place must keep them working late sometimes, huh?!"

"You're Yowane Haku." The pigtailed girl said suddenly, and Haku blinked in surprise as she lost whatever response she had been about to give in answer to the comment about Miku's parents.

"Really?! The one sponsored by Megurine-san?!" The curvy green haired girl exclaimed turning to Haku. "Are you really?! That's so cool! How do you know?" She asked her friend.

"The red eyes and white hair and the calm exotic air." The shorter girl replied, then she folded her hands politely at her waist and gave a perfect formal bow precise to the millimeter. "Pleased to meet you, Yowane-san. I am Kasane Teto."

"And I'm Megpoid Gumi!" She peered at Haku a moment then giggled again. "Did you really survive a souldrinker attack? I heard that's why your eyes are red and hair is white. And with your calm exotic air…"

"They also say she's a witch." Teto replied dryly. "Do you believe everything you hear?"

"Well I mean look at her! She DOES have the red eyes and white hair!" Gumi paused a moment then eyed Haku sideways. "You're not really a witch, are you?"

Having no idea what to say to any of this all Haku could really do was stand there as their comments washed over her, which made her glad for her outward serenity. She wasn't sure she liked the way they phrased it 'they say' about her, like people were talking about her behind her back. There were so many people in the Vocaloids she barely knew very many, how could she be spreading a reputation already? And why as a witch? She didn't know what to say to that last part so she decided to put them at ease and smiled. "I haven't found a really good gnarled wand or pointy hat yet, so I don't think I can be." Gumi laughed outright at that and even Teto smiled. Haku got the impression the pig tailed girl was very reserved for the most part, so the smile was as much for her as her companion's laugh.

"Well we haven't been around long either. Would you like to practice with us? It would be nice to have someone else to harmonize with today." Gumi smiled.

Haku returned the smile and nodded. "I would be happy to practice with you."

"Just don't cast any hexes or curses on us okay?" Gumi giggled playfully at her.

"I'll try not to, but no promises." Haku smiled back.

They all moved into the middle of the room and began to sing simple musical scales together, soft notes up and down, nice easy singing exercises any novice singer might do. After a little practice Haku could feel their notes hitting the exact same pitch as their voices seemed to fuse together, and she could feel a slight tugging sensation within herself. Apparently the other two felt it at the exact same moment because they stopped and blinked at her.

"Did you feel that?" Gumi asked the obvious question.

Haku gave a nod, "I felt it."

"Resonance!" Gumi exclaimed.

"Not exactly." Teto admonished her companion. "There are additional steps to establishing the Resonance that we haven't learned yet."

"But if we knew we could!" Gumi persisted, and Teto just sighed and shook her head.

The three of them spent the next hour or so just harmonizing in unison. Their voices really did sound good together and Haku found she was genuinely enjoying herself. The harmonies were on point and whenever they peaked on high notes it was so satisfying they couldn't help but smile at each other, even Teto. It was a pure sort of enjoyment, the kind you could lose yourself in for a time without worry or care, and she could tell by the satisfied looks that stayed stuck on the faces of the other two the whole time that they were enjoying it too. She wondered idly if all Vocaloids got such great satisfaction out singing and dancing or if it was only certain people with particular outlooks on it. After a time a natural pause in the rhythm came up and they fell silent. Gumi arched her back and stretched a bit.

"I need some water I think, my throat is dry." She said and Haku pulled her eyes away from the curvy green haired girl's body. She kept having flashbacks to that afternoon in the bathroom and it was becoming difficult to ignore it. She thought maybe she should tell them it had been her that saw them; the way their heads had come up at the sound of her yelp when she'd bitten her knuckle they doubtless knew someone had seen them if not who, but she worried that if she told them now they would hate her for it. So she kept silent and nodded at the suggestion. They gathered their things and headed out into the hall and Gumi glanced over at her. "You have a beautiful silvery voice, Yowane-san. I'm a little jealous."

Haku blushed slightly and shook her head. "Oh it's not that great. I like yours and Teto's, you mesh so well together."

Gumi and Teto both flushed ever so slightly and the redhead answered with a vague "Long hours of practice."

"Well I don't have a dedicated partner so…" Haku began but trailed off, and Gumi blinked at her.

"So you don't… mesh?" Haku shook her head and Gumi shifted the subject but unknowingly didn't shift it very far. "So how do you know Megurine-san?"

"Eh?" Haku blinked at her as they walked down the hallway. "I met her the night I came here, when she saved me from the souldrinker."

"Really?!" Gumi gushed. "You didn't know her before that?!"

Haku shook her head, "No, I used to live alone while attending university."

"Wow! I can't believe that!"

Haku blinked. This girl was even more hyper than Miku was. "Why not?"

"Megurine-san was the second Vocaloid in the organization after Hatsune-san, and in all that time she has never sponsored anyone before you, and not since either." Gumi told her matter of factly.

"Really…?' Haku wasn't sure what to say to that.

"Not everyone is as obsessed with Megurine-san as you are, Gumi-chin." Teto said as they rounded a corner sounding like this was an old conversation for her.

"What?!" Gumi exclaimed waving her arms at Teto in what might have been intended as a protesting way but really just came across as a silly flailing gesture. "I just think she's so cool! I want to be an idol just like her and Hatsune-san!"

"Ha?" Haku did a double take at Gumi for her comment, surprised to the point of nearly bumping into a display table with a vase on it and shifting aside at the last moment. "Miku-chan is an idol too?"

"Not anymore." Teto replied mildly still eying Gumi dubiously.

"Anymore? What happened?" Haku asked.

"There was some kind of debacle about a show that her manager at the time messed up and she retired because of it." Gumi said apparently not taking any issue with the look she was getting from the red head. "It still bothers her, she misses performing. I think she'd go back to it if she could."

"How do you know all of this?" Haku hadn't heard any of it before now, and after all the time she had spent in the past couple of months getting to know her two friends she'd thought she'd learned most of the major things about them.

"Gumi-chin is a complete idol nerd." Teto rolled her eyes putting on a long suffering expression.

"Am not!" Gumi objected emphatically. "Her family and my family and Teto-chin's family have been acquainted for a long time, and we're friends with Miku. Not like super close but enough so that she sponsored us for the Vocaloids."

"And you have every album that she or Megurine-san has ever released." Teto said with an ever so slight mocking look on her face.

"S-so what?!" Gumi practically shouted which just made Teto smirk at her.

Several recent behavioral quirks and comments Miku had made in the past few weeks had begun to crystallize in Haku's mind. The indefinable looks that she couldn't read before that now seemed to be not-exactly-jealous expressions she'd get when someone recognized Luka in public. The comments about how wonderful it was when someone appreciated your art in whatever form it took. The talk they'd had in Miku's makeshift painting studio upstairs when she'd said she wished she could have had a career singing. All of it stood out in a new light to Haku, and she wondered what it meant to their friendship, or if it meant anything at all to it. Probably nothing since she'd never known Miku as an idol, hadn't met her during that time of her life. She imagined there must be videos of the pretty light blue haired girl on the internet just as there were of Luka but she'd never seen them, and now she felt the lack. She cared about Miku and wanted to see her happy, and she thought about what, if anything, she could do about this.

They reached the cafeteria with the other two still carrying on and found it mostly empty but for a few pieces of curry bread, a single sweet bean bun, and two juice boxes. Gumi grabbed the sweet bean bun as quickly as Teto went for one of the breads, and they both grabbed the juice boxes. Then they stopped and looked around at Haku.

"I'm sorry Yowane-san, that was rude. Would you like the sweet bean or a juice box?" Gumi offered holding them out.

Haku smiled and waved her hand. "No that's alright, I'll have one of the breads and I already have something to drink." She held up her water bottle and when they looked about to object she turned to the sink and went about refilling her water. When she turned back around they had arranged a table to sit at and had even prepped her a spot by putting the sweet bean bun at the empty chair. Haku sat down and eyed them dubiously as they opened their curry beads and Gumi just smiled back at her.

"If you're only going to have water you should get the sweet bean." She said matter of factly.

Haku sat there a moment then picked up the bun, pulled it out if the wrapper, and tore it in half. She held out one half toward the green haired girl. "Trade you halvsies?"

Gumi blinked at that for a moment before letting out a giggle and tearing the curry bread in two and trading. "You're as polite as you are mysterious, Yowane-san!"

Haku's cheeks colored faintly and she gave a tiny shake of her head. "Not at all. And you can just call me Haku if you'd like. Both of you."

They traded glances with each other then turned smiles on her, even Teto if faintly. "Us too! You can say Gumi!"

The red head rolled her eyes. "Well you can call her Gumi, but I'd rather be called Teto."

They all laughed at the playful remark about Gumi's poor grammar then fell silent for a few moments as they chewed or drank. Despite having been nearly ravenous all morning Haku found she had strangely little appetite now and wondered why it had vanished. She nibbled on her piece of curry bread halfheartedly and then blinked as a bright flash lit up the sky outside the window. A moment later thunder rumbled through the air and the rain coming down seemed to redouble, pelting the window with a loud audible unyielding rhythm. Luka and Miku were out in that she thought with sudden worry. She reached into a pocket and slid her iPhone out to glance at her notifications, but she didn't have any undead messages. She checked the volume level to make sure she could hear it if any came in before setting it down on the table and taking a sip of water. Another flash of lightning lit the room followed a moment later by a rumble of thunder.

"Ugh, I hate thunderstorms." Gumi complained, and Haku noticed she had gone a little pale.

Teto watched her companion for a few minutes before standing up and giving a little bow in Haku's direction. "If you'd pardon us Haku, I think I should get Gumi-chin back to her room. Storms put her on edge."

"Of course." Haku nodded understandingly even if she didn't actually understand. She herself loved storms and only wished she had someplace covered but still outside she could sit to enjoy it right then.

Gumi smiled faintly at Haku as she stood. "Thank you for singing with us today, Haku. It was fun to get to know you. Let's harmonize again soon."

"Definitely." Haku said.

They gathered up what was left of their juice and breads and Teto took Gumi's arm and guided her out of the cafeteria. Haku watched them go curiously, their behavior toward each other so intimately familiar she couldn't help but wonder how long they had been a couple. It was endearing to see even if she still had a hard time getting the images from the day in the bathroom out of her mind when she talked to them, but she was happy enough to befriend them and get to know them a little. She hoped they would become her next two close friends in time, not just her guides in… other matters.

For a time Haku just sat there watching and enjoying the thunderstorm through the kitchen windows. The periodic flashes of lightning and peels of thunder were invigorating and made her smile faintly. She had nowhere else to be right then, nothing else to do. She supposed she could have gone exploring around the compound if she'd wanted, but she was waiting on that. She had found an unattended terminal the other day with a chip reader and had hacked into the Vocaloid network to grant her ID badge every possible security access and then had modified the system to not timestamp her chip authentications whenever used, meaning she could go wherever she wanted whenever she liked and as far as the system was concerned she was a ghost. She smiled at her own internal accidental joke. With her white hair she might have been taken for a spirit. She didn't want anyone to notice her in places she shouldn't be yet though so exploring during the day was out of the question.

She lost track of how long she watched the storm for but suddenly her iPhone chimed a message and she picked it up from the table to look. Luka's name popped up and she read the message. " _Haku-chin I'm caught out in the storm and my bike got a flat. I can't believe the weather turned so bad!_ " She blinked at the words then glanced up at the window. The rain was really coming down hard. She bent back to her phone screen and texted a reply, " _I'll come help. Where are you?_ " There was a longer pause than she expected there to be which made her worry for a moment before the response came to explain it. " _Don't worry about it, I don't want you getting soaked too. I can call a tow truck._ " A tow truck? Really? She shook her head and her thumb blurred on the screen even as she stood up to dump the remains of her snack before heading off toward the dorms. " _A tow truck will take hours, I can help now. Where are you?"_ Reaching her room she pulled out her parka, an umbrella, and an extra coat. The dark blue thing was older but would be better than nothing. She traded her without shirt and lose stretchy black pants for a plain older grey t-shirt and blue jeans, then her phone chimed and she picked it up and read. " _Really it's okay, I just didn't want you to worry._ " She let out a frustrated sigh and began heading toward the front gates as she answered. " _I'm leaving now. If you don't tell me I'm going to come looking. You had meetings all morning so I bet you're somewhere between here and your agency._ " Another long pause before the answer came with a cross street and Haku tucked her phone back in her pocket, put her umbrella up, tucked the spare coat under her other arm, and stepped out into the storm.

She was soaked through in minutes of course and the umbrella didn't stop sprays of water kicking up against her chest, but she hadn't brought it to keep dry so much as to shield her eyes so she could see. Every so often lightning flashed in the distance and thunder boomed overhead and once she even saw a forking bolt lance down out of the air. So deadly yet so pretty she couldn't help thinking. That bolt had been a little differently shaped than others she had seen before. … her mind jogged and she blinked as memory seemed to shake loose. " _She's programmed differently than the others."_ In the way of dreams it was a foggy recollection, clouded and indistinct and only surfaced because of the random connection to her waking thoughts. The dream came back to her all at once and she wondered why she'd had such an odd dream about Miku's parents. It didn't seem like a big deal though and she pondered over it idly as she walked on through the storm.

It took nearly half an hour to reach the corner where Luka's tire had gone flat and Haku could see right away that the back tire was sitting practically with metal on pavement, but it was the idol herself that drew Haku's eye. The pink haired beauty huddled under a roof overhang with her arms wrapped around herself shivering as she leaned against the building wall she had taken shelter against, but it didn't offer much protection. Her hair hung in a lump drenched ponytail and she was wearing a yellow sweater and blue jeans which were absolutely plastered to her. Somehow even though she was completely soaked through she still looked stunning... even with her makeup practically washed off. What an odd thing to notice at a time like this, she thought idly. Without a word or a moment's hesitation Haku stepped right up to Luka and put the umbrella handle into the crook of one of the idol's arms then fluffed her old coat around her friend. Luka clutched at it gratefully, pulling it closer around herself and Haku had to catch the umbrella as it toppled in the flurry of limbs.

"It won't get you any drier but it should help you warm up a little at least." Haku had to raise her voice a bit so it would carry over the sound of the rain on the pavement.

Luka gave a nod of understanding and gratitude. "Thank you so much Haku-chin. You're absolutely wonderful." She gave Haku such a smile of gratitude and warmth that Haku felt her insides melt a little and even though she wasn't that good at taking compliments she found herself smiling back anyway.

"It's nothing… I can just imagine how awful it would be to have to push your bike home alone with no coat in freezing rain." At that she gave a little shiver and looked around. "At least this way maybe my being here can do something? I can at least help push your bike."

"Just you're being here helps in more ways than one, Haku-chin." Luka told her and she reached up to run a fingertip as wet as the rest of her along Haku's cheek with an intent meaningful stare. She blushed in response and gestured at the motorcycle.

"Come on, the sooner we get started the sooner we'll get out of the storm." Lightning flashed and thunder peeled seemingly emphasizing the point and Luka nodded in agreement.

There was no way for them to hold the umbrella while pushing the bike so Haku folded it up and tucked it under the edge of the seat, then they both stood to either side of the motorcycle and each took hold of a handlebar then bent over the grips and began to push together. The sound of rubber dragging along the ground was almost swallowed by the ceaseless hammering rain and periodic crashes of thunder but could still be made out every now and then. Water streamed down their faces and pasted Haku's white hair to her sodden purple and black parka the same as it had done to the pink haired beauty's ponytail. The lighter coats really weren't made for weather like this. She couldn't see her bow behind her head but she spared a worried thought for the well being of the satiny black ribbon. Water damage was particularly hard on delicate material and if it dried out unevenly it could permanently warp it. She hoped her favorite bow would come out of this alright. She thought she had some gauzy bandages she could use to press it between something firm later so it would air out evenly. She hoped she did anyway. She should have thought to trade it out for a regular hair tie before she left but she'd been in a hurry to get to her friend.

Under ordinary circumstances Luka could have managed pushing the bike alone but with the storm making footing difficult and visibility poor it was all they could manage together. It took far longer for them to push the thing all the way back than it did for Haku to walk out there in the first place and they didn't say anything the whole way. They were both panting from the exertion and between lacking breath for words and the roar of the rain and booming of the thunder it would have been too difficult to hear each other speak anyway. It felt like forever pushing the motorcycle; it was hard work and slow going. The idea even occurred to her to try to make this easier with her sonic abilities but she couldn't think of how, and anything she tried had a chance of being seen by the public and so was out of the question anyway. They both slipped more than once as they toiled on, but they each always had an arm ready to try to help steady the other. The rain was freezing, the wind was biting, and the lightning was ominous, but they had each other and despite the storm they each had a smile ready whenever the other glanced up. Luka's obvious gratitude and relief that Haku was there was so palpable she couldn't help but feel warmed inside by it despite the bone deep cold.

They both heaved sighs of relief when the Compound's giant garage door was lowering shut behind them cutting the wind and rain off. They pushed the motorcycle into the corner Luka used to work on it and then as one they stretched a little trying to loosen up cramped muscles. That was when it really hit Haku and she began shivering uncontrollably. When they had been out in the terrible weather fighting the storm they'd had a purpose driving them, to get the bike back and get inside. They'd had the physical work to do of pushing the thing with it's flat dragging tire to go on with, which had kept their heart rate and adrenaline up. Now that they had finished that job and were safety inside the cold seemed to stab into Haku in a way more piercing than it had when they were actually out in that rain. She wrapped her arms around herself shivering and glanced up to see Luka doing the same, undoubtedly having the same feeling and reaction.

"I r-really h-hope M-M-Miku-ch-chan is o-okay out i-in th-this." Haku stammered through chittering teeth.

"Sh-she'll have a c-c-car at l-least, sh-she'll b-be f-fine." Luka mumbled back, but she looked worried at the thought of their friend out alone in the storm.

"W-Well, I s-still think w-we m-made it b-back f-faster than a t-tow t-truck c-could have g-gotten t-to y-you." Haku tried to smile but her jaw still chattered.

Luka moved closer and wrapped her soaked arms around the white haired girl's shoulders. "My p-poor H-Haku-ch-chin, you're s-soaked b-because of m-me. L-Let's g-get you to a b-bath b-before you c-catch a c-cold." The idol's teeth clicked together just as much as Haku's did but she wasn't worried for her own sake and that brought another wave of internal warmth to Haku's insides all it's own.

They needed to get out of their wet clothing but first they needed a dry change and some towels which they rushed to their rooms to get while leaving a trail of damp footprints along the way. They hang up their coats, grabbed bathrobes, towels, and underwear before hurrying to the bathroom. They stripped in silence and even in spite of the bone chilling coldness deep in her limbs Haku couldn't help stealing looks at the idol as Luka undressed. She was just so beautiful, so radiant, like a perfectly sculpted figure made flesh, flawless in her every curve, her every movement, her every nuance and her very poise. She watched captivated as the pink haired beauty lifted her arms over her head peeling her shirt off. Her flowing pink locks lifted too then slapped wetly back down to stick to her skin against her back, then she reached behind and unhooked her white lacy bra. Her pants were next and Haku could see the beads and runnels of rainwater on Luka's bare skin, on her shoulders and arms, her back and sides… her legs and her rear…she could see the skin pebbling up with the cold and wet. The sight was so sensual, so captivating, so enchanting that Haku felt a whole other kind of heat begin to spread through her despite the fact that she was still shivering from the cold.

"I can feel your eyes on my back, Haku-chin." Luka's crystal voice was low and smokey as she managed to get her legs free and straighten up.

Haku let out a little squeak of surprise and embarrassment as she jumped and turned away. "S-Sorry!" She stammered, not sure whether it was the cold or the embarrassment that caused it. She tried to hide her blush in finishing undressing herself. She was certain she wasn't nearly as graceful as Luka had been about it but she was hurrying through it, in part from embarrassment and in part because she could feel the idol's eyes on her back now too. Once she had finished and pulled a towel over herself she finally turned to see Luka watching her with a faint smile playing at the corners of her lips as she held her own towel to her chest.

"It was only fair." She said simply as she stood up to move towards the inner door to the bathing area. Haku swallowed hard and nodded as they went in.

Because the bathroom was kept clean and fresh at all times it was always very warm, and after the frigid air and rain of the storm it seemed almost too hot by comparison, but it was such a wonderful feeling that Haku breathed deeply as it seeped into her seeming to thaw her out. She heaved a sigh of relief as they took little stools at adjacent washing faucets, set aside their towels, and began rinsing themselves off in hot water. It felt almost scalding after everything but it was still wonderful. They took their time about it, both of them letting out little sighs of relief periodically as they got warm and muscles relaxed all over their bodies. For Haku it was one of the best feelings there was, getting warm after being cold, though this had to be one of the most extreme instances of it she'd ever had before.

Once they had cleaned themselves off and warmed up somewhat they moved to the giant bathtub. The hot water enveloped them as they slid into it letting out sighs of blissful contentment as they did. They sat in silence for long moments as they just let the heat sink into them, and Haku let her head tilt back to rest on the tub's edge and closed her eyes. She leaned there like that for a long time, hot water up to her neck and just breathing deeply and relaxing. It was so warm, so peaceful, so soothing. She thought she could have just sat there soaking the rest of the day, but she knew that was impractical. Unless maybe she could get someone to deliver take out to a bathroom…

Haku felt the water stirring beside her even before she felt the soft smoothness of Luka's leg brushing up against her own, the sides of their knees bumping and their bare hips touching. She opened her eyes and immediately felt her entire face turn crimson. The idol was right up beside her, luscious curves bare inches from her own chest as she leaned in toward Haku staring at her intently. Blue eyes seemed to capture red completely and all she could do was swallow as she gazed up at the pink haired beauty.

"Haku-chin," Luka's voice was smokey as it had been earlier yet still crystalline in it's beautiful clarity, like smoked glass. "Can I ask you a question?" All Haku could manage to do was nod at that and the idol visibly steeled herself, apparently screwing up her courage for something she was anxious to get the answer to but needed to hear all the same. "Do you…" she started and her cheeks colored a little bit, though nowhere near as badly as Haku's. "Do you… like me…?"

Haku blinked. Like her? Or _like_ her? Could she mean…? No! Of course not! How could she be asking such a thing?! But… what about all the tiny little gestures these past weeks that seemed to have been subtle flirts? What about the looks and the little comments? She already knew they were friends, but she needed more to go on before she could act. The pink haired beauty was confident and brave for doing this, if it's what it seemed like it was, but deep down Haku knew she herself was a coward and she needed more than that olive branch before she could say anything, so she swallowed hard and opted for neutral ground.

"Of course I like you." Her usually silvery voice was hoarse with the emotion that seemed like it was trying to choke her, but with a massive internal effort she kept her face smooth even if it was a blazing sunset. "You saved my life, saved my world in fact. You… you've been such a great friend… I-"

"That's not what I meant." Luka interjected gently but just as intent as she had been a moment before. She leaned in a little closer, their faces now a bare two hand widths apart. "I mean do you… _like_ me. Like… like that…" The idol's face was beginning to flush brighter now but she was still rock steady in her tone of voice and her gaze.

Haku's breath began to come in quicker gasps and her heart began to pound within her chest. It had been what she thought. They were really having this conversation. Apparently the weeks of little gestures from Luka had driven the pink haired beauty to distraction with how little response she had gotten in return, because Haku knew she hadn't done much to reciprocate all this time. She hated herself in that moment, she really was a coward or else she would have done more back. Poor Luka, this must have been absolutely eating at her inside all this time.

"Why…" Haku had to swallow to get the words out and start over. "Why are you asking this all of the sudden?"

Luka leaned in even closer, and Haku felt the other girl's ample bosom bump against her upper arm. So amazingly soft… Haku felt her face change from sunset to supernova, her cheeks positively ablaze now as the pink haired beauty's face drew to within one hand width. "I've seen the way you look at me sometimes," she practicality whispered, "Like you did earlier. I've felt the way you react to my presence… because I react the same way to yours..."

"L-Luka-chan…" Haku gasped hoarsely, "We… we're both… girls... " She couldn't get out more that, and she wasn't even sure where she was going with it. It was hard to think, hard to breathe with this radiant creature pressed in so close to her like this.

"So what?" Luka whispered silkily and leaned in even closer, the tips of their noses only a couple of centimeters apart now. "Does that really bother you? It doesn't bother me."

Haku felt pain in her knees and realized her fingers were clamped down tight on them for lack of anything else to take hold of, but she couldn't make them let go. Her stomach felt like it was turning backflips and she was certain her cheeks could have sparked kindling for a fire. "L-Luka-ch-chan… I… I…" she stammered not knowing what to say, her mind had turned to mush.

Luka's head tilted slightly to the side and she leaned even closer still, the side of her nose bumping the side of Haku's, their lips so close now she could feel the idol's breath on her mouth. The pink haired beauty's breath was quick gasps too but not as ragged as Haku's was. "I like you, Haku-chin." She breathed hotly against the snowy haired girl's lips and Haku let out a little whimper. "Like that, I mean." Luka was so brave, so strong, so confident, Haku had no idea how she did it. How could she be in such control of herself when Haku felt like she was going to go nuclear any second?

"Why… why me…?" It was so hard to breathe, she was panting like she'd run a mile and she thought for sure her heart was going to hammer it's way through her rib cage. How could Luka be so calm?!

"You're amazing, Haku-chin. You're brilliant, you're funny, you're brave, exotic, beautiful, and you're absolutely adorable in every way, but even beyond all that you're a genuinely good person. You put others before yourself and you want what's best for everyone. The way you defend others speaks of your inner self." The idol's blue eyes bore holes through Haku and she leaned even closer, her lips parting ever so slightly as though for a kiss. "You're unique, Haku-chin, and I've felt a connection to you from the first day we met, felt drawn to you, pulled to you. Like a magnet…"

"M-M-Magnet…?" Haku couldn't think, couldn't seem to make anything make sense. She'd wanted this, had dreamed of this several times, but it made her so nervous, so anxious. Why? Why couldn't she just accept it…? She shifted nervously and felt her arm slide between the other girl's breasts and her cheeks glowed even hotter though that scarcely seemed possible at this point. "We're… we're in the bath! N-N-Naked! Is this… r-really the best t-time for this…?!"

"It's been weeks… Haku-chin…. Tell me, please." Was that a note of desperation in her voice? No, surely not, not Luka. "Tell me if you like me too." She leaned another centimeter in. A hair's breadth and they would be kissing. "Do you?"

"I…" Haku gasped. "I… I d-"

The door to the changing area slammed open with a sudden crash and Haku squealed and threw herself sideways in shock and abject terror at the thought of being seen like that, falling into the bath water with a great splash that it turned out wasn't even as loud as the light blue haired blur was streaking in toward the washing faucets. "Coldcoldcoldcoldcoldcoldcoldcoldcold!" Miku was shouting as she cranked the hot water knob all the way over then lifted the showerhead clear and pulling the hose up so she could douse herself, letting out a long relieved sigh "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh!" A great shiver ran through her slim body but whether from the chill or the relief of the water was unclear.

Haku had her entire body submerged halfway across the tub from where she had been and would have stuck her face in the water too except that she was still having trouble breathing from panting so hard, so instead she had her cheek pressed up against the side of the tub's edge and sucked air in through her nose and mouth. She could just see Luka off to her side, leaning back casually against the tub's wall with her eyes half lidded as though she had been resting like that the whole time, and she looked so natural Haku might have believed it if the idol's cheeks weren't as flushed as they were. Anyone else might take it for the heat, but she knew, had been part of it's cause. She couldn't honestly say if she was relieved or unhappy that the moment was over, and she pressed her face harder against the tub's edge and squeezed her eyes shut. She wished her heart beat would slow down already…

Minutes went by like that without making any progress on her breathing and Haku was just starting to consider getting out of the tub and making a break for her bedroom when she felt a splash rippling waves of water against her. She didn't think she'd gotten her blazing cheeks under control but a moment later she heard the gasp of air from a head breaking the water's surface and she could just imagine the pretty light blue haired girl having dunked herself as she always did before sitting up on the rail of the tub to air dry with only her feet and lower legs inside, her long blue locks dangling down loose and sodden behind her. After the water stopped sloshing so hard she heard the chime like voice of her other friend from somewhere between herself and the idol.

"Ahhhhhh so good to be warm again! I HATE being cold!" There was a pause then she spoke again. "What's wrong with Haku-chan?" Miku asked, then a moment later, "Haku-chan? Are you alright?"

"I'm fine…" Haku muttered, her strained silvery voice seeming to bounce off the water in front of her face.

"I think she's just… over stimulated right now. She probably needs a rest." Luka said and Haku thought for sure that was too obvious a comment to make but Miku apparently didn't pick up on any deeper meanings.

"Ohhhhh that can happen especially on days like this." Her bubbliness was in full effect as she began to run her thoughts together speaking quickly. "I knew a girl one time who got so overly excited she began to hyperventilate and her face was super red and I then she even passed out and she said later she wasn't even feeling especially upset or anything but it just kinda happened and afterward she didn't even remember falling over or losing consciousness that it was more like just sort of being in one moment then the next thing she knew she was opening her eyes and was laying on the floor without any clue how she'd gotten there or what had happened and it wasn't until like the next day or something that she realized that the weather had been having an effect but I don't mean like our weather today there wasn't a storm that day but it had been super cloudy and drizzly and generally miserable for a few days and that can have a surprising effect on the psyche of some people and I'm not really sure why it's not everyone you'd think if it was a biological thing that the weather would affect everyone the same way but I guess it doesn't really work like that but-"

"How was your hunt, Miku-chan?" Luka interjected smoothly and gently, and Haku was equally as baffled at how Miku could run on and on like that seemingly without need to pause for breath as she was at how smoothly Luka handled it when she did, but the pretty light blue haired girl just shifted her gaze to the idol and continued her tirade mid sentence, shifting from word to word as though she hadn't been interrupted at all.

"-the storm got so intense so suddenly it was just as much of a surprise to the souldrinker as to me and I was worried my clothes squelching all over would give me away in like a second but he was making as much noise as I was it's surprising just how impossible it is to keep quiet in a storm that's raging all around drowning everything else out you can still hear someone making a racket nearby and they can hear you unless you hold perfectly still but I managed to track him all the way through the building where he tried to hide in a burned out eight story apartment complex the one that caught fire a couple months back that they haven't gotten around to demolishing yet and it was dangerous but you know what my adrenaline was pumping and it actually made it a little bit exciting and I managed to corner him on the broken out bit of the seventh floor where the wall fell away and he tried to fight but he was kinda weak and it didn't take much to get him after that it was just time consuming following him around the neighborhood until the storm started and I'm so happy to be in out of the weather and warm again ohmygod!" She broke down in a fit of giggles.

"Well I'm glad your back safe." Haku murmured finally feeling as though she might have her voice under control at least as she looked up, finding Miku sitting up right where she'd thought she would be.

"Awww, thanks Haku-chan! But you shouldn't have worried, there aren't many souldrinkers out there that are as powerful as an A Rank Vocaloid, let alone an S Rank. There isn't a lot of chance of something going wrong on a hunt for me or Luka-chin!"

"Still, the possibility does exist." Luka said gently.

Miku blinked and then gave a nod consceding the point. "I suppose that's true, the chance isn't zero. It's always good to be careful."

"Especially when you have people who care about you waiting for you to come back safely." Haku whispered, and they both turned to look at her, then they all smiled at each other. Haku felt warm all over inside. People who cared… she'd found that too now, here with the Vocaloids… with Luka and Miku. She would do her best from now on for their sakes as well.


	8. Vocaloid Academy Chapter 8

The bag in Haku's arm slipped as she reached into her pocket at the sound of her iPhone ringing and she almost dropped it when her velvety black glove caught on the material of her jeans but she managed to catch it at the very last second. The mall wasn't large but she didn't want to be in the way so she moved over as far as she could to the edge of the walkway by the wall so as not to block people's paths and looked down at her sparkly pink phone's screen to see who was calling, then blinked in surprise at the word 'Mom' on the caller ID. She hesitated a moment before accepting the call and putting the phone to her ear.

"Hello?" She asked even though she already knew who it was.

"Hello Haku dear, how are you?" Her mother's voice was pleasant and as silvery as Haku's own even if it was slightly higher pitched.

"I'm fine, how are you?" She was burning with curiosity and anxiety over what her mother was calling about but her parents were always such great sticklers for courtesies she had to wait for her to bring it up.

This time, surprisingly, her mother got straight to the point. "I'm well, thank you for asking. I just wanted to check in with you dear, see what you were up too lately. The maids have said your house hasn't been in use in some time. Where have you been?"

"Your house, mom, not mine." She replied delicately as she turned a corner of the mall making for the exit. She couldn't think of what exactly to tell her since the rules of the Vocaloid Organization were clear on not telling anyone about it, but she couldn't just say nothing. "I've been… staying with a couple of new friends." She thought that was suitably vague enough.

"Oh?" Her mother sounded surprised, apparently not put off in the least. "What new friends? Students at your school?"

"Uhm... " Haku glanced at the walls of the mall. "Something like that…" The longer this conversation went on the more she worried her mother would pick something out she didn't mean to reveal. Her mother and father were brilliant scientists after all, even if poor parents, and Yowane Yuko was as quick as any.

"I could say that…?" There was a pause on the line before her mother spoke again. "What aren't you telling me, Haku? Who are these friends of yours?"

Months at a time without word or caring and now a random phone call out of the blue? She didn't even know where her parents were let alone what they were doing and her mother calls almost at random demanding answers? "Their names are Hatsune Miku and Megurine Luka. Really there's nothing important to tell." She hoped her mother bought it, She couldn't tell her anything about where she was, it wasn't allowed.

"Hatsune…" Yuko repeated the name in a tone of surprise and thoughtfulness. There was another moment of silence, then she spoke again. "Access Keyword: Prism"

Haku stopped dead by the wall where she was, her red eyes glazing over. Someone behind her bumped into her because of the sudden stop then shuffled around her muttering angrily when she didn't move or apologize but she didn't notice at all. "Keyword accepted." She intoned in an even voice standing stock still with the phone pressed to her ear.

"Where are you?" Yuko asked calmly.

"The mall." She replied in the same neutral monotone without hesitation.

Her mother clicked her tongue impatiently. "Where are you staying?'

"Vocaloid Organization Compound." She answered in the same way.

"That's what I thought when I heard the name of your little friend." Her mother sounded annoyed but Haku couldn't think about that right now. "So you're with the Hatsune family… interesting. You've been there for how long?"

"Two months four days."

"And you've befriended their daughter… how very interesting indeed, and ironic to boot. Have you gotten access to the sublevels yet?"

"Not officially, I do not know what my security chip originally allowed access to."

"Officially?" Her mother sounded amused at that. "And unofficially? Has my little Haku been a naughty girl?"

Haku's glazed eyes saw nothing as people moved about passed her and her even tone stayed fixed. "Unknown command. Espionage Directive states that I must gain all access to unknown computer databases whenever plausible and beneficial."

"Hmmmmm, yes that's true. Then I want you to go below." Yuko sounded almost excited. "Let's find out what sort of progress they've made. You will locate the memory banks on sublevel five. Download their data then upload it all to our data cloud. Do not get caught."

"I understand."

"Once you have finished this task you will return to the main levels and go on about your day and forget you even went down there at all."

"I understand."

"Once I hang up you will resume normal behavior and forget this conversation took place. You'll remember only that I called to check up on you and you're not sure why."

"I understand."

"Good girl. Have a nice day, Haku dear." Yuko said almost pleasantly then the line went dead.

Haku blinked and looked down at her phone. Her mother… why did she care what Haku was up to all of the sudden? It didn't make any sense, she thought in annoyance. Well, at least she was off the phone now for which she was just as glad. Sliding the phone back into her pocket she glanced about. The phone call aside at least it was seeming to be a nice enough day.

Looking around near the mall exit doors she had approached while on the phone it seemed as though everyone in sight was rushing one direction or another on their way to wherever they were going, and for a few moments Haku felt slightly disoriented. She leaned forward a bit and took a deep breath, her snowy white hair cascading forward over her shoulder to partially block her field of view which was now filled with her cute black and purple parka, black designer jeans and the most adorable pair of dark leather healed half boots she had ever seen which she had bought not an hour ago. The mall floor was an off white color speckled with various colored spots and dirt shoe prints, and she simply leaned there for a moment, waiting out the curious sensation.

"Yowane-san?!" Haku jerked her head up at the call of her name to see a tall beautiful woman with short brown hair, brown eyes, and dressed in a dark red coat and equally dark blue jeans making her way through the crowd, the short thick heels of her knee high black boots clicking on the floor with each stride.

"Sakine-san." Haku offered a smile as she recognized her old classmate from University. "How have you been? I haven't seen you since-"

"Since chemistry!" Meiko finished for her with a laugh. Her voice was deeper and more sultry than Haku's was, and that combined with her overly casual manner toward everything made her somewhat of an enigma to Haku, but she still liked the other girl well enough. She'd never had many friends growing up, but if she'd attended college longer she thought Meiko would have been one. "Yeah it's been awhile! I had to do a double take when I thought I saw you though! You changed your hair! And your eyes…?" Meiko blinked in surprise. "How'd you do that?!"

Haku managed to stop a wince but just barely. "Oh. Uhm. Contacts." She lifted a hand to push her white hair back over her shoulder, hooking the last few stands behind her ear with a twist of her wrist, then let her hand rest against the side of her neck in a slightly self conscious gesture. "And bleach. I… I'm surprised you remembered me at all, let alone enough to recall my hair color. I didn't think many people really noticed me at school…"

Meiko blinked at her incredulously. "You're kidding right?" When Haku didn't say anything to that she went on. "Yowane-san, even before the white hair you had this sort of… mysterious air about you. It's kind of exotic." She smiled mischievously when Haku blushed faintly and added, "The red eyes help too, this look really suits you."

"So I've been told…" Haku muttered, casting her gaze to the side in embarrassment.

"Oh come now, Yowane-san. You know people noticed don't you? The boys in the back of the classroom would whisper about you all the time, I could hear them!" Meiko sounded as though this amused her no end but Haku scowled, a mental image of Miku and Luka popping onto her head.

"Boys…" she muttered as though it were the least important thing in the world.

Meiko just stared at her for a long moment then turned to look out the window of the door near them that led out into the parking lot. "Well… there was a rather pretty girl in one corner of the room that I'm fairly sure stared at you too…"

The comment was so nonchalant it was painfully obvious to Haku that it was just as much a question as a statement meant to put her at ease, but she just shook her head and changed the subject. "So how did the chemistry final turn out? You needed a passing grade to get into the Police Academy, didn't you?"

Meiko's face brightened and she nodded enthusiastically as she turned back to meet Haku's red eyed gaze. "Oh, yeah! Thanks to your help before you disappeared I was able to get a passing score! Just barely…" she amended conspiratorially, "But enough. I got accepted to the academy since that meant my GPA was high enough and I started the following week."

Haku smiled in return. "That's great news, Sakine-san, I'm so glad for you." Her smile faded a little and she winced a bit. "Sorry I vanished… some things… happened."

"Things? What things?" Meiko asked curiously.

Haku shook her head. "A lot actually, but… well, this isn't really the time or place to-"

Meiko interrupted her with a gasp of playful surprise. "Ah! Was it a boyfriend?!"

"What?! No!" Haku objected.

Meiko smiled slyly. "You sure? Your cheeks are positively glowing."

"No! There's no boy!"

Meiko raised an inquisitive eyebrow but still looked amused. "Girlfriend?"

"I…!" Haku started to object then swallowed and looked away. "Look it had nothing to do with anything romantic at the time, okay?"

Meiko held her hands up in mock defense and laughed. "Okay! Nevermind, I was just curious about how you've been that's all. It's what friends do right?"

Haku blinked. Friends…? "... Yes." She murmured after a moment.

"What?" Meiko asked. "What's wrong?"

Haku looked up. "I uhm. I just didn't realize we were so close, that's all."

"Well of course we are!" Meiko laughed again. "What do you think all that chemistry studying we did together was all about?"

Haku started at her. "Tutoring?"

Meiko stared back incredulously then laughed again. "Well I guess you got me there! You certainly didn't need my help studying at all, you always got straight As. I guess the help really did only go one way." She smiled brightly and tilted her head, her short brown locks swaying slightly with the motion. "Well I think of you as one, anyway. I'd be happy to be your friend, if you'd have me."

After a moment Haku smiled at her. "I'd like that."

"Good!" Meiko pulled out her slim smartphone and woke the screen up. "Then call me Meiko and give me your number so I can text you a dozen times a day!"

Haku laughed softly and withdrew her pink sparkly iPhone from her pocket once more. They traded phone numbers and made contacts in their address books, then Meiko's phone rang. The name and number that popped up was not one Haku recognized when she got a brief look at the screen in the other girl's hand before she quickly swiped the reject button and glanced up to Haku with an unreadable look on her face. "I've got to return that call, it's important." She said.

"I understand." Haku replied.

Meiko waved a hand and smiled brightly once more. "I'll text you later okay?"

"Okay, I'll talk to you then." Haku waved back and they went their separate ways. That was a little strange she thought. The name on the screen she'd seen so briefly had said 'Sergeant Shimoto' and Meiko had said she'd made it into the Academy. Had that been her commanding officer calling her? Was she on duty? No, she was at the mall and had been wearing regular clothes; didn't they have uniforms? Unless she had just gotten off duty? Maybe she was being called into duty on sudden notice. But what kind of sudden urgent duty could a recruit have pop up?

It was cold out, colder than she really liked, but she had her parka on and wasn't that worried about it. At least it wasn't raining today, just a touch cloudy though the sun was managing to shine through periodically before being swallowed by clouds once more. She mulled over her encounter with Meiko the whole way back to the Vocaloid Compound, turning the events over and over in her mind. All except the part where they'd talked about Haku's looks. After weeks- no, months now- of subtle flirts and private conversations with her two closest friends she had finally began to accept the fact that the two of them thought she was pretty, but she herself still didn't think so and she wasn't ready to accept it from anyone else, even if it did make her feel all warm and tingly inside to know that Luka and Miku thought of her like that. But Meiko was a different story. She liked the other girl well enough, wanted to think of her as a friend, intended to really, but… something about their run in just wasn't adding up in her mind, and she just couldn't quite put her finger on what… Like a memory or a dream just barely beyond recollection that you just can't quite push into conscious remembrance and trying to force it only drives it deeper into fogginess. Well either way, it would come to her eventually. And at least it really did seem to be an especially pleasant day.

Approaching the gates to the compound she let herself in via the security chip in her ID badge then headed for the giant doors of the front entrance which she also had to beep open. She moved slowly, casually through the hallways, looking about idly as she went. The bag in her left hand swayed a bit as she strode along thinking to herself. Today was Miku's birthday and she'd been having a hard time at the mall trying to find something she wanted to get the other girl but had finally found something that she thought would be well received. Rounding a corner without really thinking about where she was going she continued to focus on her friend as she beeped open the high security doors at the end of the hall she was in without realizing where she was, then crossed from that door into an elevator that took her below. She had seen one of the sublevels this lift went to but on that day she had been escorted and had been going to a different floor besides. She hoped Miku would like her gift; she was relatively sure she would but there was always the tiny worry it wouldn't be liked anyway. Miku was as important to her as Luka and she desperately wanted to keep it that way forever.

The elevator light lit up the number five and there was a ding as the doors slid open and she exited the elevator and began walking down the extremely bland corridor it deposited her in, none of which she registered even as she unconsciously began checking the placards labelling the doors she passed. She thought about Miku as she continued along, wondering at recent events. Ever since the day in the alley when she had fought to protect her pretty light blue haired friend and the like girl Rin they had met Miku had begun acting… differently around Haku. Not in a bad way really but as the days passed she had begun more and more often to be wherever Haku was going to be. She seemed to pop up in her room or the bathroom or the cafeteria, and all ways with something to offer; a ribbon, a shirt to let her borrow, a snack, any number of things. It was more than just friendly, especially considering the intent looks she would give Haku the entire time, especially if the offering was refused. It ended up being easier to just accept whatever it was than go through the hassle of politely declining. Once the other girl had even offered her a shoulder rub! She'd had a bottle of lotion and had started taking off her shirt and everything! Oh she was just as bubbly and cute as ever, but those intent looks were so captivating Haku often felt as though she were drowning in those big green eyes.

Some of the rooms stood open to reveal storage rooms or unused offices or the like, most without any purpose in evidence. After awhile the corridor came to a split where she could turn left or keep going and she moved without stopping. The hallway only continued for another six meters before dead ending at a door that wasn't labeled yet stood open through which could seen various glowing LEDs. Sure enough she saw as she entered that the room was filled with racks upon racks of computer case housings with drives plugged in. Most of the drives had labels printed on them, "Memory Archive" and a number, and every one of them had cords zip tied along rails or under shelf edges which connected them to a terminal sitting on a small work bench in the corner not far from the door. She began to move towards the terminal when she noticed the screen was not only on with open windows but the simple chair had a sweatshirt draped over it. Someone was not far away, but she could see by the screens open on the monitor it was the right room. She didn't want to get caught, that was the last thing she needed. She spun around but before she could do anything she heard voices approaching from around the corner in the hall she hadn't turned down.

There was only a few moments to act and she couldn't exit the room without being seen by whoever was coming in. Glancing around she spotted a USB extension cord that looked to be perhaps a few meters in length. Snatching it up she found the least easily accessible open USB port on the terminal, plugged it in, ran it down the edge of the desk as much out of sight as she possibly could get it, threaded it between drives on racks at the far end or the work bench, then dove around the other side of the wall of drives just as a middle aged man entered the room. She thought there was just enough bulk to the rows of computer hardware all around her that she could keep out of sight, so she silently pressed herself up against the wall and slid down it to sit wedged in the corner between the wall and the isle of memory drives. The man was humming to himself and carried a really questionable smelling sandwich the likes of which Haku could not identify. He sank into the chair at the terminal and tapped a few keys, bringing up a YouTube browser. His motions were that of a man going about his daily routine, performing actions that he'd done hundreds of times before, confident that nothing at all was out of the ordinary.

The end of the USB extension cord dangled through the slats in the computer casing beside her, and Haku slid a hand into one of her pockets to withdraw a pink flash drive with a white outer cover that had pink roses printed on it. The cover slid back to expose the USB connection and she reached up slowly and carefully to connect it to the extension cord. A little pink LED on it lit up to show it had power, then turned a rosey shade a moment later when it had successfully connected to the terminal. Once the download was in progress all she had to do was wait. The LED flickered faintly as data was processed, and she watched it for a time as she waited for it to finish, unaware of the entire ordeal as she had been since coming down here. Haku's mind seemed to blank out as she idled there, not thinking about anything at all until the man at the terminal caught her attention.

Haku had just enough of a gap between two hard drives to see the man and the terminal screen. He had put a headset on and was leaning over the workbench with his head bent low over whatever he was now working on. She couldn't see what it was with his back angled toward her but she could see the monitor from here with the YouTube window still open, and her mind seemed to turn over a little. It was a video of Miku on a giant stage, the camera following her or jumping to others for different angles as it showed Miku performing before a crowd, dancing and singing and moving about full of energy and enthusiasm. She was a natural performer, the kind of stage presence that drew the audience into her show rather than the act washing over them. Everything about her was cute and flawless which caused Haku's mind to focus on her friend again as she waited where she was.

Gumi and Teto had said that Miku used to be an idol, and judging by the number beside the view counter on the video she had been a wildly successful one, with a following bigger than most singers or dancers ever dreamed of achieving. The man at the work bench had his volume up so loud Haku could clearly hear the music even through the earpieces on his head and she couldn't help but stare at the video as though transfixed. Apparently he had a playlist set up or he watched Miku's videos so much that YouTube had a host of the them ready to go, but either way it was one song after another, shifting from one to the next as soon as each ended with barely a pause between. She was entranced by the pretty light blue haired girl on the screen, a younger version of the Hatsune Miku she knew, a little more bubbly, less developed physicality (apparently she had sprouted in the last couple of years in a number of ways) but still every bit the girl she had become such close friends with.

The motion of the pink light in the peripheral of her vision changed drawing Haku's attention to it and she saw the LED wasn't blinking anymore. She reached down slowly and slid it free from it's connection and returned if to her pocket then looked through the mainframe housing once more to check on the man. He was still bent over some piece of work he was doing at the far end of the bench, and most importantly, leaning away from the door. With his headphones playing at what had to be maximum volume and his attention otherwise occupied it seemed the best chance she should would get. She kept low as she moved to the end of the isle then watched the man a moment until it felt just right. Her instincts surged at the same time as the beat in the music and she dashed passed behind the man as silently as she could. She dashed through the doorway and was making her way back down the hall before the man was any the wiser. She caught sight of someone else down that crossing corridor at the tee but she quickened her step as though she was perfectly within her rights to be there and whoever it was never looked around from whatever they were doing and the moment passed. Moments later she was in the elevator once more, and when she exited the secure corridor back into the ground floor hallway she blinked rapidly and looked around in confusion.

Haku's head swiveled as she glanced up and down the empty hall, her cascading white hair shifting behind her back making her bow bob gently behind her neck. What was she doing…? Her head swam for a moment as she tried to remember where she'd been going. She'd just gotten back from the mall. She looked down lifting her arm to look at her hand. She still had the bag with Miku's present in it. She'd been thinking about the pretty light blue haired girl ever since she'd gotten back, but that was all she could remember. She must have zoned out, that had to have been it. It wasn't the first time, this kind of thing had happened from time to time in the past year or so. She'd thought about seeing a doctor about it, but it never hurt, never caused pain or discomfort, it was just… disorienting. She sighed and shook her head, casting one last glance up the corridor before turning to head deeper into compound.

She found her friend dozing in a plush chair by the window in a lounging room a couple doors down from the cafeteria. It was one of several like it off this hallway apparently specifically for relaxing, though that seemed a bit excessive to Haku. If you needed to rest why not use your own room? But Miku and Luka both seemed to enjoy it, and this room in particular. It had a nice view of the tops of the trees in the nearby park and the sky seemed to open up above them. The room itself held several such plush armchairs as well as a fluffy couch, all upholstered in dark oranges and browns and reds that made Haku think of autumn. There was a dimmer switch on the wall to control the light levels which was currently set low, and there was even a large screen TV on a stand at one end of the room which sat unused at the moment. Without pausing for more than a glance around the room she moved over to sit in the chair beside her friend, set the bag she was carrying down on the floor beside her seat, and looked down at the napping girl.

A break in the cloud cover outside the window came by and suddenly a bright ray of light fell through the glass and directly onto Miku's chair as she lay there napping by the window. Her light blue hair was unbound and hung loose all around her as though framing her and looked slightly damp as though it had been air drying. Her clothes, a bright purple blouse and dark purple skirt, looked fresh and unrumpled and she even smelled faintly flowery. _She must have come from the bath,_ Haku thought to herself as she gazed at the very pretty sleeping girl. Miku's eyes squeezed ever so slightly as the light came down on her and she tilted her face upward a tiny bit, and it struck Haku at that moment how perfectly picturesque the scene before her was. Unable to resist she pulled out her iPhone and tapped the camera button. The angle was perfect and she had the shutter sound off, so she took a silent picture then smiled at the image on her screen. She wanted to give Miku her present but she didn't want to disturb so lovely a view or disrupt her friend's nap so she resolved to wait until Miku woke up. It wasn't like she had anywhere else to be, so she leaned back in her own chair and began to fiddle with her phone in order to pass the time. That was the the intention at any rate, but something odd began to happen, so slowly it was imperceptible at first, yet the feeling grew within her more and more and Haku began casting sideways glances at Miku, watching the other girl doze, her red eyes round as she tried to puzzle out the feeling that was suddenly constricting her chest and making it harder to breathe. Miku was very dear to her, one of her first two real friends she'd ever had. She was kind and gentle and genuine in everything she did, but there was more to it. Haku had had dreams… dreams which even still made her tingly and warm inside to even think about. What did she feel for this girl…?

The ray of light brightened a bit as though casting Miku in a halo and Haku swallowed hard. She looked so delicate, so soft, so peaceful, so pure… an impulse struck Haku and she couldn't resist. What would it be like… if she… if she just…? She shifted forward on the edge of her chair and leaned down toward the pretty light blue haired girl, framed in her silky stands and basked in the ray of light. She hesitated a moment and swallowed hard. Her lips were so inviting, her delicate frame so wonderfully soft… Miku truly was the most amazing girl she'd ever known. They'd spent so much time together these past months… surely… surely that meant… she leaned in closer, tilted her head to the side in anticipation. The distance between them shrank, more, more, closer, closer. She hesitated again, started again, then froze. A bare few centimeters of air was all the space between their mouths, and Haku let her lips part slightly. She tried to make herself do it, she wanted to do it, needed to do it. Her tongue darted out to wet her lips and she tried to make herself close that last tiny fraction of a gap, tried to move, tried to-

"Are you going to kiss me, Haku-chan?" Miku's voice was soft and low, the normal chime like quality in it buried beneath a husky undertone as her beautiful green eyes fluttered open part way to look up at her friend.

Haku jumped in startled surprise and tried to pull away but Miku's hand wrapped around her elbow and Haku froze still leaning over her. "I… I… I…" she stammered hoarsely as her cheeks caught fire. "I'm sorry, I… I didn't… mean…"

Miku shifted upward slightly, batting those big green orbs of hers and stared straight into Haku's soul. "If you're going to…" She hesitated a moment, her own cheeks coloring faintly but her voice remained even, low and smokey. "... go ahead."

"Wh… what?" Haku managed. The heat within her wasn't just in her cheeks, it was a raging fire coursing through her now.

Miku's hand released the elbow it had hold of and her fingertips traveled gently up Haku's arm to her shoulder. "If that's what you want… then I want you to."

Haku let out a little squeak. "I… I mean… I… why?" She finally got out.

"Because you saved my life." Miku smiled at her, such a radiant smile.

Haku felt the heat that searing through her turn from hot to cold in the space of an instant. Her hands suddenly gripped the arms of Miku's chair hard enough to make the upholstery creak and her red eyes took on a flat look. "What?"

Miku caught the change in tone from passion to cold fury and her eyes widened in shock as she stared up at Haku. "Did… did I say something wrong?"

"You want me to kiss you… because you think I saved you?" Haku asked dangerously.

Miku nodded slowly. "I mean, I don't know what else-"

"That's why you've been popping up everywhere, trying to give me things, trying to do things for me? Out of a sense of guilt because you think I saved your life?"

Miku shook her head emphatically looking positively distressed now. "Not 'think' Haku-chan, you DID save me!"

"I didn't. I'm barely trained, I hardly have any power as a Vocaloid. That one souldrinker was on the verge of overpowering me. I fought with everything I had and could barely manage to even hold him at bay. Any moment could have been my last, then that second one showed up and I… I… gave up…" She choked on the last word and she felt tears sting her eyes. "I gave up, Miku-chan! I had nothing left! If Luka-chan hadn't come by when she did to save us both, I-!"

Miku lifted a finger to place over Haku's mouth, shushing her. The slim digit felt cool against her hot face, warm from fresh tears, blazing from blushing, but Miku didn't seem to notice. "It doesn't matter, Haku-chan. It doesn't matter that you failed in the end, and it doesn't matter that Luka-chan was the one to actually save us. YOU made it possible. You gave it absolutely everything you had, you didn't quit. Being defeated is not the same as failing, and you gave Luka-chin the time she needed to get to us. You succeeded, Haku-chan, just not the way you thought, you didn't fail."

Haku's mouth fell open and she stared at her friend, their faces still only centimeters apart. "I… I never… thought of it that way…"

Suddenly tears stung Miku's eyes too. "You're wonderful, Haku-chan. You're so serene, so composed, so exotic like all the time. I know you don't think you are-" She said sternly when Haku began to shake her head. "-maybe you don't feel like you are inside, but to the rest of the world, to those of us who care about you, you really are beautiful and unique in so many ways. I'm jealous of that, truly, and so, for that reason, when this mysterious beauty saves my life… then yes, of course I want to do something in return." She let out a sigh of annoyance as the emotions she was letting out after how many days since that night in the alley finally found release. "You're like, impossible to please in small ways, Haku-chan. You're too genuinely good a person, to kind, for easy things to work. So…" She blushed harder now and tilted her face up once more. "So… if what you want… is… is me… I…" She pursed her lips, closed her eyes and waited.

Haku stared at her for a long few tense moments, her heart trying to hammer it's way out of her chest, her cheeks blazing like the sun. She wanted to, she realized. Oh gods she wanted to. The thought of being with Miku made her as crazy as the thought of being with Luka did. She was finally coming to realize after so much time spent together with them both that she had more than friendship feelings for them, but that only made her think she was some sort of pervert or something. It seemed dirty and wrong somehow and she didn't know what to do about it, but oh gods she couldn't ignore it, couldn't stop wanting them, couldn't stop needing to be around them. But this… this wasn't right. She let out a sob and pushed herself backward off Miku's chair to flop back against her own plush cushions and began to weep softly. A surprised Miku blinked her eyes open to stare at her friend in surprise once more.

"Ha-Haku-chan? What's wrong? Why didn't you…"

"Not like this, Miku-chan." Haku murmured and fished a white silk handkerchief out of a pocket to start dabbing at her eyes. "This isn't right."

Miku's face fell and she turned her head to the side looking crushed. "Oh… oh I… I see… I'm sorry, I thought you wanted… but… but of course you didn't, I… I'm sorry…"

Haku shook her head violently, her white hair whipping about behind her so fervently it slapped the chair back and Miku jumped and looked back around. "No, that's not it, I do… I do… want to…" she wasn't sure if she choked on her words or her tearyness but she had to clear her throat to go on. "You're so wonderful, Miku-chan, truly. I feel the… the same way about you… as you feel about me… I just…" She sighed and held the handkerchief in both hands propped on her knees before her and stared down at it sullenly. "I don't… I don't want you to if… if you feel like you HAVE to. I don't want you to think you owe me anything, especially… especially not that. No one owes THAT to anyone else, for any reason, ever. Least of all to me."

Miku had turned back to Haku in surprise as she had spoken and her green eyes widened incredulously, and suddenly she blurted out, "You feel the-? But I thought you liked Luka-chin more!"

"Eh?!" Haku jumped again, bouncing in her seat as she stared at the other girl. "Why?! How?!" She wasn't making sense.

The pretty light blue haired girl winced at herself and shook her head. "I'm sorry, Haku-chan, I… I get ahead of myself sometimes, I shouldn't have blurted…" She sighed and leaned back in her chair dejectedly. "I speak without thinking sometimes… but… I mean, I've seen the way you two look at each other… I've seen the way things seem to be going between you, heard how you talk to each other… heard how she addresses you…" Miku swallowed and fresh tears sprang to her eyes. "When you said you felt for me like I feel I… I just…"

Haku was getting more confused by the minute. Her emotions were a bigger tangle than ever and she couldn't figure out what to do or say about them.. "Isn't it a little… weird? I mean, why should she even notice me? It's not like… I mean we just met a few months ago..." The barest flush tinted her cheeks at what she'd been about to say, but if Miku caught it the pretty light blue haired girl didn't say anything.

"She likes you." Miku shrugged.

"She likes me?" Haku was struck speechless at that, repeating the words.

"And you like her. It's obvious isn't it?" Miku said bluntly. When Haku only stared at her with big round red eyes Miku sighed. "Sorry, I'm a little… I told you, I get ahead of myself sometimes…" She waved a hand in the air in a neutral gesture. "Maybe it's only obvious to me because I've known her so long, but I haven't seen her as happy as she's been since you got here in…. Well, since her parents died really."

"You… know her so well?" Haku asked sheepishly.

Miku's blue eyes leveled at the white haired girl in the the other chair and she sighed. "I suppose I might as well tell you, you'll find out sooner or later, and it's better you know before…" She paused a moment then sighed again, casting her gaze away from Haku to some aimless spot on the wall. "Luka-chin and I… well… we were… involved… once…"

Haku felt her blood run cold suddenly and she was suddenly so hoarse it seemed like a frog had crawled down her throat. She tried to say something but it came out as a choked sound.

"See?" Miku couldn't help but let out a giggle even as she sniffled without looking around. "That's how I can tell." She finally turned back and tilted her head, her hair twisting around her. "You don't have to worry, Haku-chan. We're… not together… anymore..."

Haku swallowed hard several times before she could get anything out. "What… happened?"

Miku sighed again and reached out to pat Haku's knee. "I'd better let her tell you in her own time. If what I think is happening is actually happening, then I've interfered too much already, and I'm sorry for that, truly I am. But I didn't want you to be blindsided." When Haku opened her mouth to ask for more Miku shook her head. "No, Haku-chan please. If you still want my side of it later, after you talk to Luka-chin, I'll tell you then okay?"

Haku nodded reluctantly and Miku gave a small smile of relief and gratitude. Haku's emotions were roiling within her and she felt ready to burst with all the different and conflicting feelings flying around inside, but she respected Miku's request. She shifted back in her chair a bit to return the handkerchief to her pocket.

"It's crazy, isn't it?" She murmured, her eyes downcast and her blush still furious. "It hasn't been long enough… has it? How can… I mean is that really…" she was babbling, and she swallowed hard. "It's crazy, right?"

Miku's face was sympathetic even if her face seemed a little strained. "It's not. Sometimes two people just fit. Haven't you ever heard of love at first sight, Haku-chan?"

Haku thought about it a long moment. Maybe that's what it was… maybe… she'd never believed in such lunacy before though; it sounded too romanticised to her, but… she couldn't explain these feelings… Suddenly she was too embarrassed to talk about it anymore and neither girl seemed able to even make eye contact with the other for several long uncomfortable minutes. Finally she decided she needed to change the subject, so she turned her head partly back. "Why were you dozing out here anyway?"

"I had my stress test today." Miku replied, and at a curious glance from Haku she explained. "Oh right, you haven't done one yet. Well, when you get strong enough to start fighting souldrinkers it's something we do every so often to gauge each Vocaloid's limits. You won't have to worry about it for awhile, but basically we go into the sonic chamber and blast our sound waves all out as hard as we for as long as we can."

Haku tilted her head, "That sounds… unpleasant."

"Maybe." Miku allowed. "But it lets you know where the endpoint of your stamina is. It's helpful in a fight to know how long your endurance will last."

Haku gave a small nod at that. "It makes sense. It's the same sort of thing athletes and martial artists do during training."

"I'd never thought of it that way." Miku tapped her chin in thought with the tip of one finger for a moment then shrugged. "Anyway I was out here because Luka-chin said she'd meet me here when she got back."

So that was why Miku seemed freshly bathed and so tired. Haku considered her friend for a moment then abruptly remembered why she'd come looking for her in the first place. She leaned over to pick the bag up with the present in it and held it out in offering. "Happy Birthday, Miku-chan."

Miku's expression brightened, her green eyes going wide with excitement, and she reached out for the bag eagerly. Taking hold of the handles she pulled it open even as she drew it to her chest to look inside, then let go with one hand to reach in and draw out a case somewhat like a jewelry box but much bigger. It opened the same way, with a snapping hinge that clicked when she pushed it back and her eyes widened further. "Haku-chan… these look like hair clips, but…" Picking one up she held it up, one of the white ones with a blue strip. They were shaped like ovular discs about three centimeters thick with small holes for hair to slip through when clipped shut. There were eight in total, four white and four black, and two of each had red strips while the other two had blue which went along the outer narrow edge of each. Miku looked up with a quizzical expression. With a smile Haku reached out with one hand and flipped a tiny switch and the blue strip around the edge lit up. Miku gasped and giggled with delight as the blue LED strip glowed and she held it up to examine. "That's so cool, Haku-chan! I love them! Thank you so much!"

The pretty light blue haired girl bounded up to give Haku a big hug then leaned down to reach into her handbag by her chair. This bag was black with teal slashes and Haku wondered just how many handbags she had. She withdrew a hair brush with blue and purple swirls around the handle and brush head, a soft brush with stiff bristles rather than plastic tines, and set to work brushing out her hair. Haku thought Miku's brush was very similar to her own pearly white one. She watched her friend run her silky stands through the brush methodically and it struck her in that moment how deceptively cute and innocent the other girl was. So very innocent seeming, so cute in every way. Everything was cute about Hatsune Miku. Yet underneath lurked a powerful Vocaloid with the ability to level buildings with little more than a song. She mulled this over in her mind as she gazed at the other girl until Miku saw her looking and tilted her head while she brushed. "What is it, Haku-chan?"

"Is there a problem?" Came Luka's crystalline voice from the doorway followed by the idol herself. She carried a colorful paper bag done up with a rainbow of ribbons, and as she came in she saw there was no available chair close by them so she took a seat on one of the two couches opposite them so they were in her field of vision. Haku felt an urge to get up and go sit next to her but resisted.

"Luka-chin!" Miku said excitedly but even that was muted by her exhaustion. "Haku-chan was staring at me like I was an alien."

Haku blinked and opened her mouth but at the last instant she realized she was about to start blurting out her thoughts about her friend to Miku herself and she blushed ever so slightly and charged what she was about to say. "No, not like that. I was just thinking… Where exactly does our power come from?" She asked. "As Vocaloids I mean."

The brush stopped for a moment in Miku's hand and she blinked. "Eh? Where?" Her eyes narrowed in concentration as she thought about it. "From inside us I guess. Why such a question so suddenly?"

Luka nodded and leaned back in the couch to cross one leg over the other. The tight leather pants she was wearing were slit down both outer legs from mid thigh to a few centimeters above the ankle and the narrow gap on both sides was laced with braided cord. Her dark red shirt was almost the same cut as the one the idol had worn the night Haku had met her, with sleeves that ended just above her elbows though open more loosely than the other had been, and slits in the shoulders that left them bare. "That's right. The sonic energy is generated within our bodies, and our movements direct them."

"I was just thinking about the abilities of a Vocaloid…" Haku replied vaguely. It wasn't a lie, every word was true. "Where do they come from exactly? How did we get them? How do we use them? How do our bodies produce them? Why can't everyone do it? Why can we? How-?" Haku cut off abruptly as she realized Miku's eyes were glazing over. Her friend blinked and tilted her head as she started her hairbrush moving again.

"Wow Haku-chan, I never thought about any of that before." Her expression turned contemplative as she slowly moved the brush. Her hair was just as important to her as Haku's own was to her, as was Luka's to her, and brushing their hair together had been something the three girls had taken to doing together nightly.

"You really are brilliant, you know, Haku-chin." Luka added with one of her small private smiles. "I've occasionally wondered 'Why me?' or 'How?' but I've never thought of as many details as you did."

For the time being Haku decided to refrained from letting on that she had even more questions than that. "Well it's just odd isn't it?"

"What's odd?" Miku asked curiously. She was getting down to the tips of her light blue strands but was having to fight yawns periodically as she carefully avoided tugging too hard with the brush lest she wind up with split ends. She really must have been tired from her stress test, more than she was letting on.

"Well, all of this." She gestured about at the walls of the room around them by way of indicating the Compound as a whole. Miku's face darkened a bit and Haku hastened to explain, trying to avoid another fight about her family. "I just mean the circumstances. It's a wonderful thing we do, protecting people from attacks, but we operate independently from the government without their knowledge or sanction, we don't actively recruit, we don't operate like any kind of military organization I've ever heard of, and we don't even have a concrete training program."

"What do you mean?!" Miku asked heatedly despite Haku's attempts to avoid friction between them. "We have Mokoto-sensei! My dad is doing the best he can!"

Haku wrung her hands, her anxiety spiking a bit at her friend's tone. "I know, I wasn't saying anything bad, just… well just that I'm confused by the lack of answers! I mean, we don't have classes or anything, right? Mokoto-sensei is wonderful, but no one has ever sat me down and explained any of that"

Miku's face was turning angry and she opened her mouth to say something but Luka's calm crystal voice interjected smoothly. "I don't have those answers either. Do you know, Miku-chan?"

The petty light blue haired girl shifted her gaze to Luka and she blinked. The anger slowly began to recede from her expression and she finally sighed and shook her head. "No. I'm sorry Haku-chan, I shouldn't have gotten angry. You're right though, no one has ever explained them to me either, and I was the first!" She leaned forward to drop her brush onto the top of her handbag by the chair then began splitting her loose flowing blue strands into two side twintails. "I'd think daddy would had said something to me, but he never has and I guess I just sort of took it for granted that we were just special."

Haku couldn't keep a relieved sigh from escaping her lips when Luka managed to diffuse Miku. That was the second time now, she thought she'd have to be more careful about what she said around her friend about her family going forward. "Maybe I could ask Mokoto-sensei? Or Director Hatsune himself?"

"Mokoto-sensei seems like a good place to start." Luka replied. "You can always consider Director or Doctor Hatsune later."

Satisfied with the part in her hair Miku took out the twin to the hair clip she'd drawn from the box earlier, switched it on too, and clipped her twintails in place. Then she beamed at Haku. "I love them. How do I look?"

Haku smiled back. "Beautiful." She got a faint blush and a giggle in reply, then Miku put her hand up to cover a yawn.

Luka blinked at the light up hair clips and grinned. "Very cute."

Miku smiled back. "Haku-chan got them for meeeee-" the last word stretched out into another yawn behind her hand.

"Are you still tired from your stress test?" Luka asked, and when Miku nodded she smiled sympathetically. "Mine's in a couple of days, so rest while you can." She teased.

"Why in a few days?" Haku wanted to know.

"Because theyyyy-" Another yawn and Luka picked up.

"They try to stagger intense tests so that there's as little gap as possible in available Vocaloids for dispatch." The idol said and Miku nodded.

"Yeah that." Miku blinked sleepily and leaned back in her chair and shimmied a little from side to side to sink herself more comfortably into the cushions. "I'm so worn out right now I doubt I could do much more than stagger a souldrinker, if that."

Haku nodded, it was what she'd thought but didn't want them thinking her a know it all. The idol shifted her gaze to the blue haired girl. "I was going to take us out for dinner for your birthday Miku-chan but you don't seem up for it."

Miku shook her head disappointedly. "Not really, besides you should probably stay close Incase you're needed here." The cute girl made a face. "Mom asked me if I wanted to wait to do my stress test until tomorrow since it was my birthday, but I didn't think it would wear me out this much so I thought I'd just get it over with. It really sucks, I wanted to go out!" She paused a moment then smiled a wide and innocent looking smile. "I suppose that just means well need to have food brought here, hm?"

Luka laughed and pulled her phone from a pocket and did some flipping through web pages before apparently settling on something. She didn't actually make a call but they watched her place an online order through a third party delivery service before turning off her screen and setting her Android on the couch bedside her. Then she leaned over to lift the colorful bag out towards the twintailed girl. "Happy birthday, Miku-chan."

Miku ripped the colored strips of paper stuffing out of the rainbow color bag with a look of pure glee on her adorable face making Haku think she should have put more effort into her gift's wrapping, then her friend reached in to pull out an ornately carved box about the size of her two fists. A seam ran around that outside and there was a gold plated hinge on the back. She looked up at Luka wide eyed but the idol just smiled mysteriously back and Miku gently lifted the lid. Immediately a song started playing as a woman in flowing white robes holding aloft a silver star came up with the lid. She gasped in delighted surprise as "Twinkle Days" began to play while the woman rotated in place and Haku craned her neck from where she was sitting to get a better look. The lining of the box was carved and painted to look like a starscape, as through the woman were dancing on the galaxy itself. It brought images of a previous dream Haku had had floating up to the surface but she pushed it away fiercely not wanting to think about that right then.

"It… it's beautiful, Luka-chin!" Miku breathed, tearing her eyes away from the little music box to set it almost reverently on the end of the coffee table before hopping up to throw her arms around the pink haired beauty. "Thank you so much!"

Luka just giggled and hugged Miku back. "As long as you like it. May it always be your guiding star."

"No…" Miku whispered in the other girl's arms, looking up with a sudden intense look in her eyes. "No, that's you."

Haku felt a sudden huge stab of jealousy practicality rend it's way through her middle. She thought she might burst into tears but she wasn't sure why she should feel that way. Regardless she couldn't just sit still for this and before she knew what she was doing she'd pushed herself to her feet and headed for the door, but she only made it two steps before Luka's crystal voice stopped her. " Haku-chin? Where are you going?"

"You're not leaving are you?!" Miku pouted.

Haku had to take a deep calming breath to try to keep her emotions in check. With an effort she turned back to them and shook her head. "I'll be right back, I just… have to get something from my room. … For the second part of Miku-chan's present."

"Oh okay. Hurry back." The idol smiled.

"Second part?!" Miku piped up, but Haku was already out the door.

She trudged the rest of the way back to her room with her head down and her eyes half shut wondering what she was going to go. She didn't have any second gift for Miku but she'd needed to say something to get out of there and that had been the first thing to pop into her head in the moment that wouldn't arouse suspicion on the part of the other two girls. She thought about maybe going to get something but she couldn't drive and walking or taking public transit would take a lot longer than she could easily explain away when she got back. Did she even wasn't too go back? That was a ridiculous thought, of course she wanted to, they were her closest friends. More than that, maybe. If only she could stop being so jealous. If only she knew why she was jealous… with a sigh she turned the last corner to her room and stopped as she saw a curvy girl with short cut green hair pausing in the act of knocking on Haku's bedroom door. Her movement coming into the hallway made Gumi give a start and turn to look at her, then a look of relief and anguish washed over her face. Her eyes were red and damp and her cheeks had tear tracks.

"Yowane-san! Uhm! I was looking for you!" She wrung her hands anxiously and shifted her weight from foot to foot. "Can I, uhm, have a minute of your time? I need someone to talk to. Uhm. If that's okay?"

Haku had been spending a lot of time with Teto and Gumi since she'd met them in the studio that day while she'd been doing her first fan practice and she really liked them both. They'd done a lot of harmonizing together as well as worked at their dance forms. She offered the other girl a smile and walked up to her bedroom door, pushing it open invitingly. "Of course you can." She said soothingly. "And how many times do I need to tell you to call me Haku?" She walked in and sat on the edge of her bed leaving the makeup stand stool for Gumi, who took it with a wince.

"Sorry, you just caught be by surprise. I thought when I knocked… well I didn't expect you from the other direction." She fell into silence then and looked about at Haku's room, apparently not sure where to start. Haku folded her hands idly in her lap and waited patiently, looking around as well. Her room looked almost the same by now as her old one had at the small house her parents had kept her in, with lacy frills everywhere and falls of embroidered cloth. The only real difference was that instead of keeping her collection of stuffed animals on her bed she kept them piled neatly up on a rounded table in the far corner of the room. Well, all except her favorite stuffed tigress. Nearly as long as Haku's torso, Minan slept with her. Haku hugged the tigress while falling asleep instead of a pillow, though sometimes her paws propped against the wall and pushed Haku too close to the edge of the bed... She was shaken from her idle thoughts when Gumi finally spoke. "Have you ever… had a fight… with someone you really care for?"

She hadn't, come to think of it. Not really, not a real fight. Haku thought back and it seemed to her she'd never really had anyone she cared about enough to fight with, not until meeting Luka and Miku. She guessed that what Gumi was talking about would be like the spat she'd had with Miku about her father except far worse. Not having a satisfactory answer to give she shrugged at the other girl. It wasn't hard to see where this was going at any rate.

"Did something happen with Teto?" She asked evasively but gently, and it had the desired effect.

Gumi's eyes moistened with fresh tears and she patted her jeans pockets. Not finding what she was after she wiped at her eyes with the palms of her hands. "It's so stupid! We were trying to pick out a birthday gift for Miku and we disagreed on what to get. We went back and forth about it our voices getting louder and louder until it became a full argument. Then she told me I was being irrational. I told her she wasn't listening to my opinion, just assuming she was right. She said I was always overly emotional, and I told her she was cold… except maybe in ruder words." Color tinged her cheeks and she rubbed at her eyes again. "Anyway I stormed out. I spent some time wandering and upset but… Well I thought talking would help and besides Miku you're the only other friend I've made here so far, and I didn't want to bother Miku on her birthday."

Haku quietly stretched a hand to her nightstand for a tissue box she had there and held it out to the sniffling Gumi, who blinked at it then took it with a tremulous smile of thanks. Haku wasn't sure what to say, she'd never been in a position to console a friend before, and aside from the small spat with Miku she had no experiences that really related. She watched the green haired girl wipe at her eyes for a few minutes then tilted her head a bit. "Gumi… can I ask you something?"

"Of course." Gumi said without hesitating as she dabbed at her eyes trying not to smudge her makeup to badly, though from what Haku could see that was already a lost cause.

"Something… maybe a little personal?"

That made Gumi blink and she tilted her head a bit like she was considering it but then nodded. "Sure."

Haku hesitated not wanting to upset the other girl any further but finally she asked, "Are you and Teto…" she couldn't help pausing, couldn't help clutching at the edge of her bed, leaning over slightly on her hands as though perched there. She wanted to know this as much for her own sake as Gumi's. She swallowed and said the last word in a whisper. "... Girlfriends?"

Silence hung in the air between them for a long moment, a pause where it seemed to Haku that even the world held it's breath, though that was silly she knew. Still she felt anxious, not wanting to offend but needing to know. She'd seen them together in the bathroom that day after all, but even beyond that she'd seen seen the way they looked at each other, seen how they acted together, one always supporting the other, both as concerned with the other's well being as their own. Finally Gumi shifted her head sideways to eye Haku. "You already know the answer to that… don't you?" Haku felt her insides do a little flip but she nodded and Gumi asked, "Then why ask?"

"I didn't want to presume…" It sounded like a weak excuse and indeed Gumi saw right through it.

"Haku… you're too polite." She tried another small smile but it was still tentative, he face still damp. "This is about you and Megurine-san, isn't it?" Haku gave a tiny start and Gumi giggled at her. A weak giggle but still a giggle. "Don't be so surprised, I've seen your face when the topic shifts to her."

Haku shook her head. "No, this is about you and Teto." She shifted her gaze at random as she talked. "I don't have much experience with this sort of thing, but I think if you really love someone you have to trust them to love you in return. You have to do everything you can to care for their heart, because they have to care for yours too." Her eyes fell on the top of her dresser and she blinked at the pair of folded fans lain neatly atop it beside her small black handbag. "... And sometimes when words fail, you have to simply show them your heart…" she all but whispered to herself.

There was another pause of silence in the room and suddenly she gave a start as she felt a hand on her arm and turned her head back. Gumi had scooted the makeup stand stool closer and laid the fingertips of one hand on Haku's forearm. "That's beautiful advice… Haku-chan." She smiled.

Haku blushed and shook her head. "I'm sorry, it probably doesn't help much."

Gumi let out another small giggle and shook her head. "No it does. It helps. I'm gonna go find Teto…" she stood up and tossed her used tissues in Haku's little trash can. "Thank you for being there for me. You're a good friend." Haku's blush deepened a little as Gumi moved to the door, opened it, then paused a moment and looked back. Their eyes met and Gumi smiled, a real genuine smile this time, this one for Haku. "Good luck, Haku-chan. Don't give up." Then she was gone, and Haku was alone in her room.

Turning her head she gazed at the fans on her dresser again, her birthday gift from Miku. The blue haired girl had said she wanted to see Haku dance with them some day. Weeks later she didn't feel completely ready for a real demonstration, but… she had promised something else but she had nothing more and no time to figure anything out. She had to do something… with a sigh she stood and stepped over to her wardrobe, pulling it open and shuffled through her clothes until she found a silky grey shirt patterned in blue stars with suitably loose sleeves and a pair of tight black nylon dancers leggings. She thought about keeping her velvety black gloves on, but decided against it. As much as she liked them they would make the fan trick much more difficult, so she left them on her dresser. She pulled her door shut that Gumi had left open so she could change then turned to retrieve the two folded fans. Far less delicate than they looked (she knew from dropping them numerous times while practicing) the wood was intricately carved and the material between a gauzy purple floral pattern made of something besides paper. As she departed her room she thought about music, about what would be appropriate and what too cliche. She was lost in thought about it as she approached the door of the relaxing room she'd left her two friends in, but at the sounds of their voices she froze. Something about the intensity of their tones made her pause and she listened for a moment.

"-telling me you don't feel anything for me anymore?" Miku's chime like voice, sounding almost desperate.

"I'm saying it's complicated…" came Luka's crystalline reply. "And that maybe right now isn't the best time to discuss it, that's all. Haku-chin should be back any moment…'

"Haku- _chin_ …" Miku muttered, emphasizing the endearment. Haku could hear the the creaking of couch material and couldn't stop herself from peaking around the corner. Miku was sitting beside Luka and was leaning intently forward, her green eyes fixed to the idol's blue and both had faint flushes in their cheeks. "I remember when you used to call me that. Is there no more room in your heart for me? You swore-"

Luka cut her off gently but firmly. "I swore we'd talk about it, and we will. Later okay?" Miku opened her mouth and Luka put her fingertips to the twintailed girl's lips. "I promise."

Haku felt an urge to run. She didn't know exactly what was going on but it sounded intimidate and private which brought the sharp stab of jealousy back from earlier. She didn't understand why that could be, but suddenly her own words from a few minutes ago rang in her mind. " _Sometimes when words fail, you have to simply show them your heart_ …" and Gumi's parting sentiment, " _Good luck, Haku-chan. Don't give up._ " Don't give up… even if she didn't fully understand…

"Haku-chin!" Luka sat up a little straighter as Haku stepped back into the room. She pointedly didn't look at the pair on the couch as she passed them, pretending like she was focusing on getting ready so they had a chance to move apart discreetly if they needed to. "You changed…?

"What's in your hands, Haku-chan?" Miku asked curiously, no doubt expecting a gift.

Haku didn't respond to either of them. The only way she could make herself do this at this point was to wrap herself in her outwardly serene stage presence or she thought she might break down. Without turning to the other two she calmly shifted the coffee table over as far as it would go and pushed an armchair back so neither were in her way. She could feel their eyes on her, watching her with curious looks, taking in her every move with their eyes. Catching her tone, or a degree of it at least, the other two girls fell silent as Haku took up a position before them, hands to either side, head bowed and eyes closed. She had to focus to make her body vibrate the right way inside, and it was difficult to get her sonics resonating for just sound waves. She still had so far to go in her training, but she had been practicing this on her own for just this sort of occasion. Producing a burst of sonic power at an opponent was similar but still different than making real music and learning to do one on purpose was not quite the same as the other, but Mokoto was a fantastic teacher.

The first few slow rhythmic notes began to emanate from her body filling the room with music as surely as a speaker. It was a Chu Noh Mai, one of the traditional pieces she'd been studying her fan dancing with. Neither slow nor fast paced she let the first several notes go by until a slight pause preceded a quick few drum taps and with that she suddenly crossed her arms and snapped the fans open. She heard gasps of surprise and delight but she still hadn't opened her eyes. Vocaloids were creatures of instinct and intuition. She knew where the furniture was, where she'd moved it to, how far away it was, how much room she had to maneuver. She moved fluidly with the steady pace of the beat, a wordless melody full of the emotion and rich heritage of centuries past, ages of culture developed and gone by over time. Dancing this dance to this song for these girls, she felt as though she were a part of this song's history now too.

The fans fluttered in the air as she waved them in time with her sonic melody, twirling and spinning and flapping in her hands as though alive, and as one song drew to a close she let the music shift seamlessly to another one, similar yet a bit faster paced. Finally Haku opened her eyes and let her red gaze met blue and green. The other two girls were wide eyed with their lips in little "o" shapes. She wasn't sure if that was good or bad, but she danced on for them, the music completely driving her now even as she produced it. She did her absolute best to copy the way she'd seen the professional dancers move and step in the videos she'd been studying in her spare time every day, and though she didn't think she managed the sheer grace of those women she thought perhaps she did a passable job. She wanted so much to look that kind of beautiful to Luka and Miku that sometimes the magnitude of the desire was almost more than she could stand.

Toward the end of the second song came the fan trick. She'd only managed it successfully a hand full of times and only very recently, but as she held one hand over her head and straight out and the other before her and balanced one fan on it's end on her fingertips she could feel it, could tell even before she did it that she had it perfectly. She flicked her fingers, snapped the fan, and it spun end over end in an upward flip and she caught it smoothly with the other hand even as she dropped the second fan from that hand to land in her lower hand on her palm. Miku and Luka oohed and ahhed and clapped their hands excitedly, and Haku went back to spinning the fans about herself. Compared to the trick letting a fan twirl in a full three hundred sixty degree spin around her wrist seemed almost easy as she danced along to her music.

The last song she danced to was a more well known one and much faster paced, and it was for that reason that Haku had saved Senrangakura for last. She bounced around in the quick footed dance she'd learned and the fan movements for this song almost seemed like simply waving them around to her, but soon enough the other two girls were tapping their feet and clapping along to the tune. Towards the end they even began to sing along, apparently familiar with with the melody yet clearly enjoying it all the same. Miku even raised her arms in the air with her fists out as though holding a massive drumstick and mimed hitting a huge drum in time with where the drum beats would have been in the middle of the song, and when she struck the air with air she produced a deep low resonating THOOM! that synched perfectly in time with Haku's own sonics. Once the drum part was over she let out a giggle that was interrupted by a massive jaw creaking yawn. Apparently she was still too tired to be generating sonics at all and Luka gave her an admonishing look. Miku just giggled again and mimed bopping Luka with the stick, though this time without using her power.

When the last notes faded away Haku struck a final pose with the fans out then folded them up and gave a little bow as she might have to an audience, even if her crowd was only two people. Miku and Luka let out a round of applause and cheered at her and it was only then Haku completely came back to herself. It was almost like the music had had ahold of her and only just released her. She blushed a little and leaned over to tug the coffee table back into place, set her fans down on it, then pulled the chair she'd moved back where it had been and sat down.

"That was amazing, Haku-chan!" Miku gushed as the furniture was being put back. "Positively wonderful! How did you learn all that in so few weeks?! You're fantastic!"

"Truly brilliant, Haku-chin." Luka added. "You're beautiful and graceful and absolutely enchanting to watch. I was captivated the entire time." She cast a playful glance at the twintailed girl beside her. "Well. Most of the time."

Miku pretended not to notice. "Really great Haku-chan! You looked like you belong on a stage! You'd make a fantastic idol!"

"Mmm, now there's a thought." Luka flashed that small private smile.

Haku blushed all the harder in embarrassment of the compliments they were giving her and shook her head. "No, I just… wanted to do something special for Miku-chan's birthday."

The other two girls frowned as one and Miku opened her mouth to object but at that moment Luka's phone rang. She accepted the call and put it to her ear. "Hello?" She paused to listen them smiled. "Thank you, I'll be right out." She hung up and stood. "Dinner has arrived." Miku cheered then yawned again and Haku stood up to go help Luka bring the food in, and the three had a pleasant evening in enjoying each other's company.


	9. Vocaloid Academy Chapter 9

The sun was a blazing bright ball in an almost cloudless sky having burned off all but a few thin trailing wisps of cottony looking streamers here and there in the sky, but even still the fiery orb wasn't managing to do more than take the stab of chill out of the air. As late as it was into winter there was still no snow which was unusual for this time of year but not unheard of. Still, it was the kind of cold Haku enjoyed, and she turned her face up into the breeze whenever it buffeted her with a tiny smile playing at her lips. She glanced around at the other girl's with her in the massive park and couldn't stop a giggle. Teto and Gumi were arguing over a scarf and Miku and Luka were fighting over a snack. It was typical of them but Haku was warmed inside just watching them interact. Her closest friends in the world and she wouldn't have them any other way. Well… maybe two of them… in a little different way…

"The purple and green clash with your seafoam colored coat, Gumi-chin." Teto informed the curvy green haired girl as though it were the most obvious thing in the world as she held on to one end of the cute scarf.

"So?!" Gumi retorted keeping hold of the other end. "I don't think it fits with your red curls!" Teto's hair, normally done in short pointed conical twintails that didn't quite brush her shoulders, was brushed out in curly waves today, and the stoic redhead just stared in response.

"But I'm huuuuuuuuuuungry!" Miku whined at Luka making a grab at the idol's dango, the white plastic hair clips with blue LED strips around the edges holding her twintails in place bouncing slightly as she did.

The pink haired beauty shifted her arm away being careful not to tilt the stick too far lest she lose the sweet all together. "You already ate yours, Miku-chan. If you want another one go get one." Her dark red coat contrasted sharply with Miku's sky blue one. It would have looked good on Teto but the stoic redhead was wearing a pure white parka of all things.

Haku put a hand to her mouth and let out another giggle and the white bow holding back her cascading snowy locks bobbed a little behind her head. She had been having a fantastic time the entire afternoon with the others all together, though Gumi was still having a hard time getting over the fact that she was attending a festival with Luka, or as part of a group with the idol at any rate. The short haired girl was a little star struck when it came to the great Megurine Luka, a fact which the others took great amusement in whenever Gumi tripped over her own words or stumbled in her stride or anything else when addressing Luka. Even still, the afternoon had been going well enough and everyone seemed to be enjoying themselves quite thoroughly, and it was no wonder. At any given moment there was any number of attractions and entertainment within easy eyeshot. Food and drink and souvenir vendors every few meters, tumblers and jugglers and musicians plying their arts for all to appreciate, and any number of hawkers and fortune tellers and painters and anything else that an event could draw out to help entice a crowd. They'd been walking around for a couple of hours just enjoying the sights and sounds and smells and it didn't seem like any of them wanted it to end any time soon.

Moving along the roadway they stopped at an acrobat stage and stood watching the tumblers for a bit. All five of them oohed and aahed at the show when one of the acrobats pulled off a particularly difficult spin or flip or somersault. Haku was less impressed by the show itself than she was by the performers themselves. Slim and athletic of build they were all very agile, very light on their feet. She wished she could be more like, but her chest was too big and her hips too rounded for her to have much tumbling ability. She'd stick to dancing she thought, at least in private. There was no doubt she had a dancer's build, but she still got nervous whenever people were watching. Miku and Luka had been trying to convince her ever since her fan display for Miku's birthday yesterday that she'd make a fantastic idol, but she doubted it.

As they moved away from the tumblers Haku spotted a man with a tray of the dango and she stopped to buy one, removing one of her black velvety gloves to produce a few coins for it from a pocket of her silver coat. The weather was too cold for her parka so she'd bought something heavier. Hurrying to catch up to the others she held out the stick to Miku with a smile. Miku blinked when she noticed and let out a little squee of delight. "Haku-chan! Thank you!" She took it eagerly and took a big bite. "Mmmmf! Sho goof! You shafed my life!"

"Miku-chan, don't talk with your mouth full." Luka admonished the twintailed girl but she couldn't hide a slight smile of amusement. Her flowing pink hair rustled in the slight breeze. She wore it down and loose today, kept out of her face only by a golden hair band atop her head. "Seriously, how can you eat so much when you're so petite? Where do you put it all?"

Miku swallowed her bite and put on a big smile as she began to babble. "Mom says I'm a growing girl and need all my energy and food gives you energy so why not taste everything I can while I'm still growing so I don't get fat later on when my metabolism slows down when I get older besides I don't like being so petite I really wish I was a little bigger especially in the chest area like you OHHHH! or Haku-chan oh my gosh have you seen her in the bath I can't even believe how gifted she is I think she might even be a little bigger than you Luka-chin but of course it's hard to tell with polite accidental glances I'd have to really get in and compare but that's rude and I hey wait where's Haku-chan going?!"

Miku flashed an apologetic smile but Haku was already gone again. She'd spotted another vendor selling hats and sunglasses and the like and she hurried over tugging her glove back on as much to get away from her bubbling friend's comments as because of what she saw in the stall. She found a scarf similar to the one Gumi and Teto had ahold of but darker and more of a patterned spiral than swirls of color and she bought it and made her way back to her friends with it behind her back in one hand so they couldn't see it. She held out her other hand and tilted her head. "Let me have it?"

The other two girls exchanged glances as they all stopped by a fountain. Miku and Luka turned around to watch as Gumi and Teto looked to each other before handing the scarf over hesitantly. Haku shuffled them around behind her back then tilted her head at the pair. "I'm thinking of a number between one and one hundred. Whoever guesses closer goes first." She told them, visualizing a fifty.

They blinked in confusion but Gumi threw her hand up in the air. "Seventy-seven!"

Teto eyed the green haired girl then shrugged. "Thirty-nine."

Haku tilted her head at the redhead. "Pick a hand, Teto." With a suspicious look Teto pointed at Haku's right arm. She pulled her hands out from behind her back to hold out her right hand toward Teto which contained the darker scarf Haku had just bought, and her left hand toward Gumi holding the original scarf. All four girls blinked then began giggling at the silliness of the situation but they smiled at her anyway.

"Thank you Haku-chan." Gumi smiled taking her prize and wrapped the scarf around her neck.

"Thank you." Teto echoed, doing the same.

"You're so generous Haku-chan!" Miku giggled and they all turned to continue on through the fairgrounds.

The thing that really captured their attention were the musicians. No matter whether drums, horns, brass, flutes or even keyboards they stopped to appreciate each one they came across. Haku could tell it wasn't just her; all five of them seemed drawn to music like moths to flame. At each one they paused to listen for a bit, to nod along, or sometimes even to turn a few dance steps, though Haku held back on that more than the others. She was so self conscious still it was hard for her to really put herself out there like that. She always felt like she was just putting herself on display, which is what she told Luka when the pink haired beauty tried to pull her out to dance at a large gathering of people around a bassist and guitar pair and she reluctantly let herself be pulled along.

The idol let out a gentle laugh at that, but it wasn't a mocking laugh, just amusement. "Of course that's what you're doing, Haku-chin. It's part of what makes _us_ so much more vibrant than everyone else." She emphasized "us" in such a way as to leave no doubt she meant Vocaloids but Haku flushed slightly anyway. Weeks and months of training and she still felt embarrassed when anyone appreciated her form or beauty. Well… anyone besides Luka and Miku that was… her blush deepened at the thought and Luka let out another laugh, her crystalline voice light and lilting. "Besides, you're a wonderful dancer."

"Do you… really think I'm so great?" Haku mumbled as they swayed to the music together.

"Of course I do! I tell you all the time don't I?" That amused playful smile never wavered on Luka's face.

"Only about every day…" Haku replied pointedly.

"Is that all?" The idol's voice was like a crystal ringing beautifully in the air. "Hm. I'll have to tell you more often then."

"I'm being serious, Luka-chan." Haku didn't whine. She didn't!

Luka stopped a moment mid step and leveled a look at the snowy haired girl. Then she reached up to brush the fingers of one hand against Haku's chin and jaw. "So am I." She replied evenly. "I honestly don't understand your self deprications and low self confidence Haku-chin. You're elegant, graceful, serene, delicate, tender… Truly, I think you're an angel."

Haku felt her cheeks burning and she dropped her gaze in embarrassment, but Luka's playfulness was back and she just hugged the snowy haired girl. So Haku danced with Luka, enjoying how fluidly graceful the pink haired beauty was in every step, every motion. Then later at another musician's stop, a trumpeter, she danced with Miku. The pretty light blue haired girl looked up at Haku with her big green eyes locking on to red and a silent moment passed between them. They had very nearly kissed the day before on Miku's birthday and apparently they were both still thinking about it. Then again, Luka had very nearly kissed Haku a few days before that. _Gods I'm awful…_ Haku thought, her cheeks heating with shame this time rather than embarrassment. She couldn't understand why caring so deeply for them hurt so much at the same time. She felt like she could break down in tears any minute whenever she looked at either girl. Still, she enjoyed dancing with her friend. Miku was a fantastic dancer, every bit Luka's equal even if their styles did differ significantly. Where Luka was the embodiment of elegance and poise Miku was bubbly and energetic. Everything about Hatsune Miku was cute.

Gumi was dragging Teto along at every stop, taking her hands and forcing the redhead to dance with her, though in truth despite Teto's perpetual long suffering look it seemed obvious to Haku that she was enjoying the curvy green haired girl's attentions. She let herself be pulled along at every turn with never a word of complaint, and the edges of her eyes and ever so slightly upturned corners of her lips spoke of a hidden smile. Gumi was every bit as bubbly and energetic as was Miku and at times the two of them would stop at a vendor and gush over something cute or amazing, pointing and gesticulating wildly while Haku stood back with Luka and Teto, all three of them watching and shaking their heads or rolling their eyes at each other in shared commiseration.

It was at a huge drumming pavilion that they were captured by a crowd. The performers all had various sizes of drums and sticks, some small and carried or worn on straps and some so large they had to be set up on stands to be played, and they were all wearing very authentic looking traditional garb. A large mass of people were gathered apparently waiting on a performance but not a note was being struck. The five walked up curiously and suddenly someone pointed and shouted, "By the gods! It's Hatsune Miku and Megurine Luka!" The audience surged forward as one all yelling wildly and despite the sudden mob of people Luka and Miku seemed delighted to have been recognized, Miku more so than Luka, the twintailed girl positively beaming as she raised her hands to wave around at the crowd. People were beginning to shout things, asking when and where their next show was our requesting autographs, but the biggest sentiment was something about the drummers. It was then that a broad shouldered man wearing a robe and carrying a large drum walked up to the five girls and the crowd hushed. The man spoke loud enough for everyone to hear.

"Either fortune smiles upon me this day or you have the most amazing timing I've ever seen. Three of my band members are late showing up and they hold critical spots on the biggest drums." He hiked a thumb over his shoulder indicating three huge round canvas tops bigger around than a man was tall. "I never thought to meet such famous idols in person, but if I might presume to impose by asking a favor…?"

Miku's face lit up before he was even finished talking as soon as she saw where this was going and by the time the question was hanging in the air she was practically bouncing from foot to foot. "Pleeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaase tell me your asking us to play giant drums for you!"

The band leader laughed. "Just until our delayed members arrive, if you'd be so kind?"

"Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!" Miku cheered, causing the crowd to cheer as well, and the pretty light blue haired girl spun around to Luka and Haku grabbing one of either of their hands and beginning to tug them forward. "Come on!"

Luka stepped forward willingly enough with that mysterious smile of hers but Haku felt her anxiety spike and she pulled back hesitantly. "Uhhhhh…. I don't know how… you two go ahead. Uhm. I'll just watch…?"

Miku stopped dead and stared at Haku for a long intense moment. She didn't say anything, didn't scowl or frown or make any negative outward sign, yet Haku knew down to her core that her friend was deeply disappointed. Then the moment burst like a popped bubble and Miku turned toward Gumi and grabbed her hand instead. "Come on!" The three of them moved off toward the giant drums and the audience cheered again. A chant went up in the crowd alternating with "Lu-ka! Mi-ku! Lu-ka! Mi-ku! Lu-ka! Mi-ku!" Then the drummers began playing and the three girls picked up huge drinking sticks and began to pound theirs in time. The beat was heavy and hard and the drummers wove it ever more intricately as each measure of the song went by, almost as though passing it around and building it up.

Even just banging a stick on a drumhead their individual styles shone through. Luka's stick seemed alive in her hands, flowing through the air as though directed by a force of nature in a fluid way, her body shifting and bending in ways so beautiful it was hard for Haku to keep her eyes off the idol, except when looking at her other friend. Miku's bubbliness had her bouncing cutely all over the place. She hit the drum exactly in time but with flourishes of her stick and poses of her body with her arms up and smiling so radiantly it was obvious she was having a grand time of it. Haku's conversation with Teto and Gumi the other day came back to her, about how Miku had once been an idol and had only retired because of unfortunate circumstances. She loved being recognized, resented it when she wasn't and Luka was even if she never complained about it, and Haku had seen the videos online of the petty girl. She had a huge following in every country in the world. Suddenly Haku's mind began turning. Miku obviously still had a passion for this, and had wanted to share it with Haku… and she'd refused. No wonder she'd been disappointed…

"They're so beautiful…" The redhead spoke up suddenly beside her, startling Haku out of her reverie.

"Eh?" She blinked from the scene before her to Teto then back again. "Oh. Yeah. They are."

"Natural performers for sure, all three of them." She added.

Haku pulled her eyes away from Luka and Miku to watch Gumi for a moment. Somewhere between the other two she worked her drum as enthusiastically as Miku but with an easy flowing motion. She twirled her sticks occasionally and posed all the same, and after a few moments Haku nodded. "That they are."

"Gumi-chin wants to be an idol like Megurine-san." Teto said.

"She'll do well in that." Haku replied.

"Only if I do to." The redhead responded and when Haku tilted her head curiously she added "She won't do it unless I do it with her. She wants us to share in it because she's so passionate about it."

Haku had spent a good deal of time practicing and training with Teto and Gumi but this was the first time the more reserved redhead had opened up to her before. She tilted her head in a more curious way and asked, "Are you going to?"

Teto shifted her gaze back to Gumi and was silent for a couple of moments as the loud THOOM THOOM BOOMBOOMBOOM THOOM THOOM BOOMBOOMBOOM washed over them before answering with a question of her own. "Can I tell you something, Yowane-san? Something I would appreciate if you kept to yourself?" When Haku only nodded she went on. "Being in front of people terrifies me. The thought of being the sole subject the center of attention for however many dozens or hundreds of people all at once sends a cold wave of fear through me that freezes me in place. I don't understand how idols do it."

"I know what you mean." Haku replied gently shifting her gaze back to her friends on the drums. Miku was dancing about and around her drum in little spinning circles while somehow managing to maintain her rhythmic banging between that and posing, and Luka was twirling her sticks in ever more intricate circles and patterns as she kept her tempo going.

"You do?" Teto asked in surprise. "But you're so serene and collected all the time. I thought nothing bothered you."

Haku couldn't stop a small chuckle at that. "It's an act. Miku-chan told me when I first joined the Vocaloids that a lot of idols and other performers adopt a stage presence for their acts to make being in front of people easier, so I took that idea and altered it for my own use. In truth I struggle internally at times… a lot of the time really, and the mask of calm is sometimes all that keeps me from breaking down."

Teto started at her for a long time in surprise then suddenly smiled. Haku didn't think she'd ever seen the redhead smile before and it was beautiful. "Thank you for sharing that… Haku."

Haku smiled back. "You shared, so I did."

Teto looked around before answering the earlier question. "Yes, I'll do it. For Gumi, I'll try to be an idol with her."

Haku blinked, and again started at Miku and Luka. For them… if it was for them… Not the crowds, not the public, not herself… for them… suddenly she turned to the redhead, an impulse seizing her suddenly. "Teto… let's show them. Right now. Let's show them our feelings."

"Eh?" Teto blinked.

"We can't tell them, it's too hard. Let's show them together. It'll be easier if we do it together, right?"

Teto stared at her for a long few moments before her small smile came back and she nodded. Haku took her by the hand and led her out in front of the drums. She positioned herself so she was facing the big drums her friends were playing as much as she was the crowd before letting of Teto, and it took a few moments before Luka, Miku and Gumi noticed them, but when they did their faces lit up with delight. The tempo of the of the music shifted and Haku prepared herself.

"What do I do?" Teto asked quietly, almost too quietly to be heard over the beat of the drums.

"Just do it like dance practice." Haku answered. "There's no right or wrong, just move how it feels right. Instinct and intuition right? Ignore the crowd, just dance for Gumi."

Then the tempo broke and they began to dance. There were no words, there didn't need to be. They stepped and stomped and twisted and bent and swayed to the constant pounding of the rhythm of the drums. Gumi's eyes seemed to drink in Teto in the same way that Haku could feel Luka and Miku's gazes devouring her own movements but no one faltered in what they were doing, though Miku did have to stop dancing in circles around her drum in order to keep Haku in eyeshot. For an entire song they danced. Two songs. Three. Five. She moved and swayed her hips, put her arms over her head and turned, ducked and weaved and rolled her hips as sensually and elegantly as she could possibly manage. The rest of the world seemed to fall away for Haku; all there was, all that existed, was Miku and Luka and the dance. She poured all her feelings for them into it. She still didn't understand them all herself, didn't entirely get why she was so completely enraptured by these two lovely creatures, but right then it didn't seem to matter. The emotion was all, the dance was all. Their eyes were round and hungry, a light of desire in both of their faces.

Suddenly she became aware that they were no longer on the drums, they were right beside her and the music had stopped. The crowd was cheering wildly and Luka and Miku's faces were flushed with far more than the adrenaline of the performance. "Haku-chin…' Luka's crystalline voice was low and smokey for some reason and she seemed at a loss to say more than that as she team her hands up and down Haku's left arm.

Miku reached to touch Haku's cheek affectionately with the tips of the fingers of her left hand and Haku swallowed a lump in her throat. "Miku-chan I'm sorry I-" Miku moved her fingers from Haku's cheek to her lips and shook her head, smiling and looking just as flushed as Luka. For a couple of seconds the three of them simply stood there together sharing a moment. In the peripheral of her vision Haku could see Teto and Gumi staring deeply into each other's eyes having a similar moment of their own.

The magic ended abruptly as the band leader came over to the five girls laughing. "Thank you so much for playing until my boys arrived! The people loved it! Especially that dancing!" He turned to Haku and Teto. "Are you girls idol friends of Megurine-san and Hatsune-san? I'm ashamed to say I don't recognize you."

Haku opened her mouth to object and could see the same words forming on Teto's lips but Miku cut in smoothly. "That's right! Yowane Haku, Kasane Teto, and Megpoid Gumi! They're new, but you'll be seeing a lot more of them I'm sure!" Haku blinked at her friend and Miku just smiled back. Teto and Gumi looked poleaxed but the bandleader just let out a laugh.

"New huh? They looked like pros to me, but if you say it Hatsune-san I believe it."

"They're still just shy yet." Luka added giving Haku a gentle nudge with her her shoulder and one of her small private smiles. Haku felt her insides melt a little at the pink haired beauty's attention.

"Well I shouldn't keep you distracted all day, but I wonder if you might do us the honor of a parting song? This crowd looks fit to go wild any moment!"

Luka smiled up at the man, a more general sort of smile than the one she gave Haku. "The honor would be ours." Miku nodded enthusiastic agreement.

"Wonderful! We can drum along to any song o'course, but the more beat the better obviously."

Miku looked at Luka then back to the man and spoke at the same time. "Senbonzakura."

Haku blinked then her red eyes widened. "Oh! But I don't have my fans…"

"You don't need them, we'll just do the dance." Miku said and as she had done earlier reached out to take her hand and Luka's. This time Haku let her pull her along beside the idol. She had butterflies in her stomach at the thought of dancing before a crowd, a real show, but she told herself it was just a festival event not like a real performance, and that she was really dancing for her friends anyway.

The bandleader led them over to a little prop table where a laptop had been set up so they could queue up the song. Miku looked up at Haku and Luka. "Do either of you have it? … in digital form?" They both understood what she meant, that it might not be wise to be using their Vocaloid abilities so openly for music. Luka shook her head but Haku reached into her pocket and produced her pink and white flower patterned USB drive and handed it to Miku, who took it and plugged it into a free port.

"Haku look at this." Gumi said, drawing Haku's attention away to turn and look in the direction the short haired girl was pointing. There was some kind of procession going by in the distance with a huge dragon on poles held up by a dozen people making it look as though it were flying and weaving through the air above the crowd. The girls clapped in delight at the display and Haku wondered what the puppet was made out of.

"Haku-chin, there's nothing on this flash drive." Came Miku's voice and Haku turned back to the laptop.

"What do you mean? I use it all the time."

"I mean it's blank. Look." The light blue twintailed girl pointed at the screen. Haku started at the empty window in confusion.

"How can that be? I just used it recently. I've had it for months."

"Maybe it just went out this morning?" Miku suggested. "Nevermind, I'll pull the song up online."

Haku reached down to retrieve the drive then paused with her hand still in the air. The little pink LED on the drive was blinking as though it were processing data. She frowned at it. How could it be blank but still process data? Her frown deepened and she pulled the drive free and stared at it in her palm considering.

"Don't frown Haku-chin, you'll get wrinkles." Came Luka's crystal voice and Haku looked up to see the idol watching her with a teasing smile. "It's just a flash drive. Don't worry we'll get you a new one."

Haku opened her mouth to reply but Miku jumped up excitedly. "Got it! We're ready!"

They five of them moved to the middle of the pavilion as the first notes began to play from speakers built into the pavilion so stealthily it seemed the music came from nowhere, then right as they stepped off Miku, Luka, Gumi and Teto all took a small step back as one to either side and Haku suddenly found herself with center stage. She very nearly froze but when the music picked up it claimed her, and whether they were using their powers or not Haku could still feel the energies of the other Vocaloids flowing out towards her. Or maybe just flowing out around her, around them all. Either way she didn't want to disappoint Miku and Luka, so she let the music carry her on. The crowd was cheering and jumping in time with what was apparently a well liked song. It was popular enough she knew and the five of them moved in unison. She didn't know how Teto and Gumi knew the steps or if they were just moving by instinct and intuition as so much of their Vocaloid abilities were so guided, but she herself felt as though she knew which steps were conning even before she hit them and thought she would have even if she hadn't spent recent weeks practicing the song for her fan dancing.

When the final notes faded the five of them struck a pose for the small audience who cheered wildly with their arms up in the air and shouted all manner of praises, and Haku had to admit when it was all said and done that it hadn't been so bad as she'd thought performing in front of people, though this was surely nothing compared to a real show with an enormous audience. The drums shifted smoothly into their normal rhythms and the crowd ate it up. The five Vocaloids found themselves nearly free to go about their day if not quite; now that they'd captured public recognition nothing seemed to do but that a few autographs get signed, and Miku and Luka shortly found themselves with pens pushed into their hands. They didn't seem to mind it though and signed happily for the fun of the impromptu performance.

What really surprised Haku however was that quite a few people approached her for her autograph as well. She'd never signed one before and wasn't sure if she even should. She wasn't a real idol like her two friends after all and didn't think she had the right, but she didn't want to be rude or cause a fuss so she signed. What really caught her off guard however were the compliments. Person after person told her how beautiful she was, how gracefully she danced, how wonderful she looked beside the likes of other famous idols like Megurine Luka and Hatsune Miku, and what a brilliant career as an idol she was sure to have. One little girl of about eight or ten years of age with long dark hair and brown eyes that looked a lot like she used to before her change from the souldrinker attack what felt a lifetime ago now told Haku in no uncertain terms that she thought Haku was absolutely the prettiest and coolest singer she'd ever seen. Haku was a little taken aback but on impulse she smiled and reached up behind her head, tugging the bow holding her snowy cascading locks back loose, then she bent down to the girl and gave her the velvety white ribbon. Wide eyed the girl let out a squee of delight and thanked Haku profusely before turning excitedly to show off her prize to her parents.

The sentiments of the crowd were similar to those expressed by her friends, and it made her happy inside to hear it whenever they said it, but she could dismiss them as overly kind words from friends. These were strangers who had never seen her before today. If they were saying things like this... It was a little much for her to the in. She'd spent the greater part of her life shut away from most public interaction and didn't have a lot experience interacting with people or even really understanding the difference between genetic politeness and genuine sentiment. She didn't know how to handle it and began just thanking the people when they would express such things and glance away embarrassed. Whenever She did she caught sight of Gumi and Teto with pens in their hands as well.

"That was so much fun!" Miku exclaimed stretching her arms high up over her head as they all finally made their way through the crowd away from the drummers. "I wish it had lasted longer though."

"You really miss it, don't you." Luka said, a statement not a question

Miku hesitated then looked up at the pink haired beauty. "Of course I do. But… well…" she paused a moment then gave a small shrug. "There is no better feeling than to be appreciated for something you put effort into, for an artist to be liked and cheered for their craft. Of course I miss it…" she trailed off and no one seemed to want to press her on the subject. Haku couldn't help turning it over in her mind though, wondering at how she might go about finding a solution for her friend. She was startled out of her reverie when her friend's phone began to ring, 'Twinkle Days' filling the air before Miku could pull it from a pocket and check the screen before putting it to her ear, answering with a bubbly, "Hi mom! I was just down the street here at the festival with everyone and-" Her flow of words cut off abruptly and the pretty girl's face grew deadly serious at whatever Doctor Hatsune was saying on the other end of the phone. After a few moment's pause she nodded. "I understand, we'll go immediately." Then she turned off the phone and slid it into her pocket before looking around at the others. "Luka-chin and I have to go. Can the rest of you stay here, maybe enjoy the festival a little longer?"

"What is it? What's happening?" Haku had a bad feeling in the pit of her stomach suddenly.

"Souldrinker attack?" Luka asked the twintailed girl. All amusement and playfulness was gone from her voice, the idol now in her calm serious mode that made Haku think of her as the warrior Luka.

Miku hesitated a moment seemingly trying to decide if she should say, then she let out a little sigh. "Several of them have been detected in a public park… in Sector four one delta. Hunting them can be a pain sometimes, but when they're hungry they usually aren't very smart. These ones are hiding in public areas. They've… gotten two people already."

Gumi's jaw dropped a bit. "They… they take more than… one at a time?"

Miku shrugged, "I dunno, I guess they can feed as much as they want, but this isn't usual behavior. It's a public park, and there's any number of possible casualties, and…" she hesitated again and apparently couldn't bring herself to say it.

Haku filled it in, seeing the problem right away. "And places for them to hide and ambush us…" She swallowed but suddenly that cloak of calm serenity she'd been working on these past months was easy to find and pull over herself, her red eyes showing steely determination. "I'm going."

Luka shook her head. "No you're not."

Miku flinched. "Mom said you couldn't-"

"I don't care what Doctor Hatsune said." Haku's smooth silvery voice held a tone of solid intent. "I'm going, Miku-chan, Luka-chan. I can't leave you two to… I mean you're my…" she shook her head. "You've both saved my life…" she trailed off.

Luka opened her mouth to object but then closed it again as she stared at Haku. Miku too stared at the snowy haired girl for a long few moments before finally nodding. "Ok, Haku-chan. But if anything goes wrong, anything at all, you stay behind me, okay? You're not fully trained yet."

Haku had absolutely zero intention of doing any such thing if it came down to it, but she would have agreed to anything if they would let her go. By the look in Miku's green eyes she knew that already, but she turned them around toward the festival's exits with a muttered, "This is a bad idea…"

"If Haku's going so are we!" Gumi chirped throwing her hand in the air, though her usually bubbly countenance was laced with uncertainty and maybe even a little fear.

"Absolutely not." Luka replied as they all moved swiftly out of the gates then turned down a side street. "Haku-chin has had a little experience already in the field and is further along in her training than you both are. It's not safe."

"We don't know how many there are." Teto's voice was even yet determined. "If you had an exact number wouldn't you have said? It only makes sense to have as many of us as we can."

"This isn't mathematics, it's a dangerous situation." Miku said defiantly. "You two aren't coming."

"That's not fair!" Gumi was nearly on the point of shouting. "We can help! I know we could do something!"

They rounded the last block as they argued and the Compound came into sight. They stopped partway between the front gates and the garage side door and Luka pointed at the gates. "This isn't a debate you two, it's an order from a higher ranking Vocaloid. You're not coming. I'm sorry, but it's for your own good."

Teto and Gumi both opened their mouths with angry looks on their faces but Haku stepped forward and put a hand out to either of their arms. "If you want to help, you can do so from here. Tell Director Hatsune we're unsure of their numbers and that we may need additional support. You can always come later with the backup."

The two of them stared at her for a minute then finally nodded their agreement. "Okay…" Gumi said, "But be careful alright? Well be out soon." Haku nodded as they turned to head inside and she faced Luka and Miku. The two powerful Vocaloids were trading dubious glances before turning to Haku.

"You know that's not how this works, right?" Miku asked bluntly. "Mom and dad and the team analyze the readings and dispatch who they think is necessary, no more. No unnecessary risks. There won't be any backup."

Haku nodded. "I know, and likely so so Teto and Gumi, but I don't think they really wanted to go, and this way they won't come after us and at least can feel as though they're a part what's going on."

They looked at her incredulously then each let out a little giggle. "Oh Haku-chin you're so polite and diplomatic." Luka smiled one of those small private smiles again. "It's absolutely adorable." She looked to Miku and cast a thumb over her shoulder at the garages. "We need speed. I'll go on ahead. You two can catch up."

Miku grinned wickedly, a playful competitive sort of smirk. "Catch up? I'll bet we beat you there!"

They entered the garages which held any number of inconspicuous black vehicles for official use, some large SUVs, some smaller plain cars, and a few motorcycles. Luka flashed one last smile before pulling her black and pink helmet on, hitting the garage door control on her handlebars, kicking her bike into gear, gunning the engine and roaring out of the garage with her flowing silky pink hair streaming out behind her. Miku walked passed all of the other vehicles with Haku in tow to an angular expensive looking sporty foreign import.

"What... kind of car is this?" Haku blinked in surprise. She wasn't a car person but this was very pretty.

Miku smiled fondly at it. "A Ferrari. This is my baby. I drive it whenever I can." She opened the driver side door which was apparently not locked and got in, leaving Haku to do the same on the passenger side. Once in Haku found why it wasn't locked. Miku pulled her ID badge with it's electronic chip embedded in it and inserted it in a slot in the dashboard where the keyhole should have been, except there was no keyhole only a chip reader. Then she pushed a button that said "Start/Stop Engine" and the black Ferrari roared to life and Miku grinned. "It's technically for official use, but it's our fastest car and only a couple people have clearance to use it." She winked, slammed the Ferrari into reverse, threw the wheel over and stepped on the gas all in rapid fire succession.

Haku couldn't help but let out a little squeal and grab hold of the door and seat handles as the tires screamed against the pavement as they backed out of the garage at a breakneck speed, just barely clearing the garage door coming back down after Luka's departure. Once outside Miku barely let the the Ferrari slow before slamming it into gear and taking off down the street. Haku wasn't sure how they didn't get pulled over on the way to the park but with Luka's life potentially on the line showing up ahead of them and alone she wasn't about to object.

There was a small parking area at the park and Miku wheeled the Ferrari around into a spot, cut the engine, snagged her ID badge and hopped out. Haku got out too, some small part of her noting that Miku's parking job was terrible but it wasn't like they had the time for such small things. The idol's bike was parked off to the side already. Luka was scouting ahead, maybe already finding the souldrinkers, maybe already in trouble. She followed Miku into the park and they began to slowly circle it. There were people everywhere, some on picnics, some out with pets, a few sitting and reading or studying.

Haku was antsy from the slow pace and wanted to run. They had to find Luka! "Shouldn't we be moving faster?" She asked making an effort not to bolt.

Miku shook her head. "We don't want to alarm anyone or tip our hand to the souldrinkers." She said quietly enough that she wouldn't have been heard more than a few feet away. "One of our biggest rules is not to ever do anything that can get us noticed as an organization. Just keep your eyes open, we'll find them, or we'll find Luka-chin."

The park was lush and green and laid out in such a way so the path would take them around trees or flower bushes or small ponds to display them at the best possible angle while walking. They strode along through the park for several minutes which stretched into ten, then a quarter of an hour, then half an hour. Haku could feel herself growing antsier and more anxious with every passing minute. Miku was with her and she took comfort from that presence, but Luka was out there, alone and outnumbered and potentially in trouble. Soon she felt like she was going to explode from the levels of anxiety wracking through her, yet all she could do was walk along beside the pretty light blue haired girl and try not to chew too much on her lower lip with worry as they moved down the park trails. Periodically along the path the foliage opened up to reveal a secluded spot with benches or the like for relaxing in the shade. At one split in the path they saw a glimpse of paper white skin flash around the edge of abush.

"Stay here!" Miku said and took off, but Haku had no intention of waiting. What if that thing had Luka?! They came around the edge of the large outcropping of foliage to see two pale people with black orbs for eyes, one a man holding a preteen boy in his grip, the other a woman presumably the one they had just been chasing. The odds would have effectively been two on one as Haku wasn't trained enough for this, but the souldrinkers were distracted and Miku got the drop on them. Her movements were as fluid as ever as she spun and ducked and moved her arms in great arcs in the air, and the ultra high frequency sonic booms were enough send the pair to the ground in moments with flashes of light blue light only the two of them could see. The second the boy was free he made a break for it and Miku let him go. "He's not important, even if he saw anything noteworthy no one would believe him off by himself like this. Come on, let's keep looking for Luka-chin."

It was at another such opening at a split in the path several branches down some ten more minutes later that they saw a small walled gazebo and finally caught a flash of pink hair around the back of the structure. "There she is!" Haku said and made as if to run to Luka's side, but Miku caught her arm.

"Haku-chan, wait. She might be stalking it, and you don't want to interrupt." Miku looked around and pointed to a spot by the side of the building where they could observe. "Let's wait over there."

They made their way around the edge of the gazebo's clearing and waited behind a tree peeking out from behind it. Luka was in clear view now, her dark red coat sliding soundlessly against her wall as she craned her neck to peer around the structure. She was standing against the wall and watching one of the gazebo's doors intently, her long flowing pink hair streaming loose behind her with the diamond studded sunglasses Haku had given her up on her head for easy reach. She was a huntress focused on her prey.

Miku let out a soft hiss and Haku glanced at her, seeing her looking toward the front of the building, and turned her own head that way. A man of average height and build with short dark hair was making his way around the building, creeping up behind Luka. A man with a papery white face and all black eyes.

Everything happened at once. Haku again made as if to run out to Luka, but Miku took off first, shoving her away. "Stay back!" She half shouted, and it wasn't entirely clear if she was talking to Haku or the souldrinker. The creature's head whipped around at the shout as did Luka's, and the two girls spun to confront the man. Miku took up a dancing pose with one arm around her middle and the other curved over her head, but Luka got a good look at the man's face and looked confused. "That's not the same-'

At that moment Haku saw a second man coming out of the door Luka had been watching with the same pale skin and all black eyes. Time seemed to slow down for Haku, like a digital video that had been set to a tiny fraction of normal playback speed. She felt like she could have moved ten or twenty steps to every one the creature took. Miku was in mid dance step, a furious tempo coming from her as she moved to her own music, and to Haku's red eyes flashes of light blue tinted light were coming out of her hands or elbows or feet just as they had in the dance studio the day of her show match with Mokoto, only this time directed at the souldrinker who had been sneaking up on them. Luka was still turning around in confusion, trusting the new threat to Miku to deal with as she searched for her earlier quarry, but the other one was sprinting for her. She didn't have enough time.

Haku couldn't let anything happen to Luka. She wouldn't! She let her instincts take over, let her emotions run wild, all the concern and worry she was feeling backed up by the feelings she had been having for the pink haired beauty. She took a quick step out, bent a knee, threw her head back so she was looking down her nose at her target, and thrust her hands up, one behind her head with her elbow out to the side and the other hand extended toward the souldrinker, palm up with her pinky and ring fingers curled as though to pluck him out of the air with her first three fingers. Her body focused, directed, vibrated, and she let the note out, a low terrible resonating note like a death knell. "Huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu!"

The white sonic energy wave ripped through the air toward the man to slam into his chest. There was a snarl, the sound of angry bestial rage, but it staggered him knocking him out of his sprint, throwing him off balance. Her miniscule half-trained power didn't seem to have harmed him in the slightest, but it gave Luka the moment she needed to complete her turn, coming smoothly up into a pose of her own, and then she too began to dance.

Haku was in awe of the pretty pair before her. Back to back they danced, pink hair and light blue swishing around them as they ducked, weaved, and turned. Somehow Haku could instinctively tell that they were not Resonating, simply focusing on their own individual targets. For the first time Haku was getting to truly see the Odoru no Budo in action, the way a Vocaloid fought, the Martial Art of Dance. These souldrinkers seemed to be stronger than the one that had attacked her on the train and the two from the alley that night, and even though the pair of girls didn't actually sing any lyrics, the tune was almost recognizable, or perhaps it was just because they were harmonizing even while facing away from each other toward different foes. Where as her lesson in the dance studio had been a show match, this was a real battle for their lives. Every hand gesture, every elbow thrust, every kick out or hip pop, was aimed at the enemies surrounding them, but unlike the show match where Miku and Makoto never got close to each other, these creatures actively attempted to reach the two girls, tried to strike them, hit them or kick them or something to overpower them. The sonic energy buffets from their attacks were precisely aimed to keep them back. Miku and Luka were like Haku in terms of body strength, like any girl. Their edge was not strength but speed, agility, and sonic energy. The souldrinker's bodies were kept at bay by specifically directed sonic energy buffets which turned aside or countered their blows as surely as any traditional martial arts arm or leg block or parry.

Haku absorbed all this as she watched, her first real look at field work, but even as she watched Miku and Luka gained the upper hand quickly enough. These souldrinkers weren't weak, yet they were still clearly outclassed. The two beauties weren't even breathing hard as they pressed their advantage, and within only a few chords of their harmonizing chorus Haku saw the trick to it. The hand motions, body twists, and leg kicks were in part meant to defend against their attackers, yet the real intent was the same as in a traditional martial arts fight in which you use those movements to attempt to open up a hole in the opponent's defense to strike a vital area. Which is exactly what they did. Almost simultaneously, just like the crescendo of a choreographed song and dance number, one of Luka's energy waves dazed her foe and made him pull back as Miku managed to knock her souldrinker back with a blast to the head. Both creatures recoiled stunned, and the harmonizing tempo between the girls peaked. Elbow, hip, arm, hip, hand, foot, elbow, foot, blow after blow of sonic energies as they danced on rammed into the head and chest of two out matched creatures and they finally fell, all black eyes staring up at the sky already glazing over.

Haku didn't wait, she sprinted straight for her beautiful idol and Luka had time enough only to turn a baffled look on the silvery white haired girl as she tackled her and they went down to the soft grass in a crescendo of grunts, Haku atop Luka as their bodies pressed together and red eyes stared intently down into blue-grey.

"Ha- Haku-chin." Luka breathed. She seemed flustered but not from her fight, that had been all too easy for her. Both of their faces flushed deeply at the contact but Haku wouldn't be deterred.

"Luka-chan, I was so worried for you. I…" Haku stopped and swallowed hard, but she maintained the intent stare, and Luka didn't seem inclined to break the eye contact.

"Haku-chin, you may have just saved my life." Luka said, then she winced. "I'm sorry I jeopardized yours, I shouldn't have let you come today, I don't deserve-"

Haku shook her head firmly in denial. "No. NO! You didn't fail me, you saved me! You saved me in every way one person CAN save another. You kept me from the fate of being devoured by a souldrinker weeks ago, and you changed my life, saving me from the dreary dullness that it was." She reached a hand up to the pink haired beauty's cheek and stroked it gently with her fingertips. "You gave me a future, something to look forward to. Helping you is the least I could do, is all I WANT to do." The feelings she'd been pouring over for months now seemed to crystallize in her head to at least a small degree and she wanted Luka to understand them, to feel them with her.

"Haku-chin…" Surprisingly Luka's eyes were tearing up a bit, but it wasn't from upset or hurt, it was just the flood of emotions, the intensity from one to another after a second shared near death experience since they'd known each other.

"Luka-chan…" Haku whispered, and she tilted her head to line up their mouths, inching downward slowly.

"You don't…" Luka swallowed hard, her cheeks on fire now. "You don't… think this is too sudden, do you? I mean… too fast? It's only been a couple of months…"

"You say this now? You were the one… in the bath last week…"

"I know… I just… I was worried…"

"Sometimes two people just click." Haku whispered repeating Miku's earlier words, then added Makoto's as well. "We are Vocaloids. We do everything fast." With that she let her mouth descend faster, but she was no quicker down than Luka was leaning her head up. Their lips met, their eyes closed, fireworks exploded in their heads and the rest of the world fell away. There was only each other, their soft lips pressing together gently but insistently, their tongues dipping out to meet the others and roll together, their hands on the other's cheeks carasseing tenderly, and the heat building within them like a blazing inferno. Neither was sure how long they lay there in the embrace, clinging to each other unwilling to let go, but eventually their lungs forced them to part with gasps for air, so intent had they been on the other that the simple biological need for oxygen had been forgotten all together. They looked at each other for a few long moments, their tongues still extended part way and their eyes hazy with the pleasure of the taste of the other still on their lips.

A choked little sound brought both of their heads up to see Miku standing a few feet away with a huge round eyed look on her face, her mouth in a little 'o' shape. Abruptly all three of them broke out into blushes and Miku spun away. Haku scrambled backward off of Luka quickly but the idol caught her hand and held tight, and though she felt certain that she would die of embarrassment any second she didn't resist the pink haired beauties hold on her hand. Luka shifted her gaze from Haku to look at Miku's back, the twintailed girl standing stock still in a rigid back straight posture. "Miku-chan…?" Her crystal voice came out gently.

Miku didn't move or say anything for a very long very heavy few moments, then she put her hand into her coat pocket and drew her phone out. She tapped the few screen a few times and held it up to her ear. "Hatsune. Dispatched four. Needing cleanup."

"I took one before you arrived." Luka allowed.

"Correction. Dispatched five." Then she hung up and slid her phone back into her pocket.

"Miku-chan, I-" Haku tried, her silvery voice quavering tremulously.

"I need to get back." Miku's usually chime like voice was as flat and neutral as Teto's right that moment. "I'll see you both… later." And with that she marched off.

Haku felt her eyes sting with tears and she reached up a hand in a vain attempt to stop a sniffle that made it passed her palm anyway. Why did it hurt so much? Why did caring hurt so very much? She thought if the situations had been reversed and she'd been searching the park with Luka trying to find Miku things would have played out exactly as they just had only it would be Luka marching off now. She didn't understand, couldn't fathom why things were the way they were, but she was absolutely certain about one thing now: she cared deeply for both of these girls, so deeply it hurt. If she lost either one… if one or the other ended up hating her…

A hand on her shoulder brought Haku's tear streaked face up to meet Luka's gaze. The idol had unshed tears shining in her blue eyes but she had a small smile on her lips, that small private smile. "It will be okay, Haku-chin. I know it will."

Haku opened her mouth to object, to ask how she could know that, to try to say anything at all really, but her voice stuck in her throat and all she could managed was a little raspy noise. But finally after a moment she just nodded. "I hope so…" The pair of them held hands all the way back to Luka's motorcycle, neither caring that anyone they passed would see two girls with their arms together.


	10. Vocaloid Academy Chapter 10

"So I think that would be the best plan as far as lighting goes for the stage, Megurine-san."

"Mhm…"

"It would give the best backdrop even if it does get in your eyes a little too much."

"Mhm…"

"Good, and as far as the seating arrangements are concerned, the venue has said they can accommodate a large number of standing audience if we removed the back row of seating to sell more tickets, but that would mean less people in their seats and more flailing around. That wouldn't hinder you I'm certain but it would mean an increased need for security presence, and the cost of pay for them might offset the added revenue from the extra tickets and-"

Luka was not listening. Her head swam with images and thoughts of a certain beautifully exotic silvery white haired girl with a bow in her hair; her chest felt ready to burst with the emotions roiling through her. She couldn't believe how blissful the last couple of days had been. Luka tended to get up each morning before Haku and the past few days when she had woken she had slipped out of her room and into Haku's. She'd been surprised and pleased when Haku wanted the room beside hers when she'd first moved into the Vocaloid Compound, and she would close the door quietly and slip into Haku's bed careful not to disturb her and doze there with the exotic beauty until she woke up, fluttering her mysterious red eyes and giving the cutest little yawn…

"-really think we ought to set up an autograph booth for after. I know you don't like doing that Megurine-san, but you have to sometimes and you didn't at the last two events, especially if you wear that little black number of yours for the show instead of the red and white one, so-"

She had never really believed in love at first sight or any of the romanticised tales of affairs that started hot and burned fast, but from the moment she had seen Haku on the train as that creature had been sucking out her lifeforce she had felt SOMEthing. Guilt certainly, she had been hunting it after all, but more than that. She'd been worried Haku would hate her, but far from it. They had formed an instant connection, she was sure of it, especially when Haku had so heartbreakingly asked her to stay when she needed help afterward, turning to her idol…

"Megurine-san?"

And that kiss… oh that kiss still made her weak in the knees and warm inside just remembering it days later. She had been so afraid it was too fast, so afraid of accidentally scaring the snowy haired beauty away. But the feel of Haku's lips on hers, the softness of their tongues twining, the press of their bodies as Haku lay atop her in the grass… the joy, the intimacy, had gone on forever, had ended far too quickly...

"Megurine-san! Are you listening?!"

"Ha?" Luka gave a little start, her blue eyes going wide and she clutched her chair's arms coming back to herself suddenly.

Hojoto Hime, Luka's talent manager, narrowed her eyes and gave a stern look at the idol over her narrow reading glasses. Somewhere just shy of her middle years, Hime was a handsome woman rather than pretty though to hear her tell it she had been ravishing in her younger years. Now she was all stern business woman with her dark hair pulled back and wound up in a professional bun to compliment her skirt suit. "You've been extremely distracted ever since you got here. Are you alright?"

Luka flushed as she thought back over the past hour or so. Had she really been daydreaming? She shook her head, she shouldn't be letting her mind wander like that. But thinking about Haku it was so hard not to…

She gave another little shake of her head. "Lights, seating, security, autographs, I heard everything you said, Hojoto-san. No lights in my eyes, I want to be able to see my audience as much as possible. Extra standing room for more tickets is fine, even if it doesn't mean extra money for me it still means extra revenue for the venue so we make a good impression on them for the future, and besides the more tickets sold the wider the audience and the more publicity we generate. Completely worth it. And autographs… I suppose, if I have to… but I'm wearing the red and white." Haku looked good in black… maybe she could take the black dress home…

Her manager was taking notes but casting more of those looks at her over the edges of her glasses. "Your business instincts are as sharp as ever. It's why I agreed to work with you after you managed to break your contact with that lout."

"Mhm…" Haku might help her publicity too if she showed up in that dress, with her silver white cascading hair tied in her black ribbon and her red eyes taking absolutely everything in the way they did when she had that mysterious serene mood going…

"Megurine-san!"

"Ha?" Luka jumped.

Hime started sternly before a sly smile crept onto her lips. "I get it now, I recognise that look on your face, the slight flush, the constant distractions."

Luka's flush deepened. "Wha- what do you mean?"

Hime set her pen down and leaned forward on her elbows against her desk. "Spill it. Who is he?"

Luka blinked in confusion. "Who's who?"

"The boy who has you so distracted of course!" Hime chortled. "Some man has caught your attentions; you've got that dreamy look in your eye. Come on, spill it."

Luka's face was hot now and she tilted her head down to stare at her black knee high stiletto boots and began picking idly at her black designer jeans. "N-no one…"

Hime snorted. "Oh come now. Remember I was quite a ravishing thing in my youth, I recognise the signs!"

"There's no man, Hojoto-san." Luka said firmly, and, well, quite honestly. "Can we please get back to the show demographics?"

Hime held up her hands in a pacifying gesture. "Okay, fine, don't tell me now, we can talk about it some other time." She picked her pen back up and scanned her notes. "Regarding the pre show opening-"

Luka was already gone again, a beautiful snowy hair framed face filling her mind's eye. She wondered what Haku was doing right then. Was Haku thinking about her, too?

… … … … ...

Director Hatsune's deep bass voice reverberated off the walls as well as the heavy wood conference table as it had for the past hour. "So you see Yowane-san, we aren't upset that you helped but that you disregarded orders to do so, even if the results of your actions were inherently positive."

"Mhm…"

"Our organization's greatest concern aside from the souldrinkers is secrecy. We have to maintain ourselves and conduct our affairs carefully until we decide to go public or tell the government."

"Mhm…"

"Good. Now, it's been nearly three months and your introductory lessons are proceeding at pace. We have full confidence that before long-"

Haku was not listening. Her head swam with images and thoughts of a certain graceful and ravishing idol with her long flowing loose pink ponytail tied high behind her head. She couldn't believe how blissful the last couple of days had been. Haku was by no means a late sleeper, in fact she enjoyed the morning hours and was regularly up early; she was beginning to suspect the idol was purposely setting her alarm early, but Luka tended to get up each morning before her these past few days and when she had woken up with a little yawn and opened her eyes she'd find Luka half dozing in her bed beside her, just idly watching her sleep. She would smile the most radiant smile and say good morning and Haku couldn't imagine a more wonderful way to wake up…

"-really think it would be best if you began thinking about your future here with us. Everyone contributes in some way, whether by working directly for us in some capacity or by maintaining their own outside lives while helping us with other types of support. You've been here such a short time we don't know what to expect of you and-"

She had never really thought about love at first sight, or about any sort of love really. That sort of thing seemed like it had belonged in movies or on TV and her shut in world had always been far too dreary for anything like that. Be that as it may, if she were being honest with herself, she had always felt drawn to the beautiful idol even before meeting her on that fateful day on the train. Luka had saved her life, in every way a person could save someone, rescuing her from death and then changing her life for the better. Even if Haku had already had the power inside her, she never would have known it without Luka…

"Yowane-san?"

And that kiss… oh that kiss still made her melt inside and giddy all over just thinking about it days later. She had been so afraid she was rushing into it too fast, that Luka would think her stupid or star struck by the gorgeous idol, but her head had moved in just as fast as Haku's had. Their lips pressed together, their soft tongues twining, the sheer need to be with the other woman… the heat, the happiness, had lasted forever, had ended far too quickly…

"Yowane-san! Are you listening?!"

"Ha?" Haku gave a little start, her red eyes going wide and she clutched her chair's arms coming back to herself suddenly.

Director Hatsune ran the fingers of one hand through his short military crew cut teal hair. No real expression showed on his square jawed hard face but he still seemed distinctly annoyed though she couldn't have said what gave her the impression. Even so his words weren't entirely unkind. "You've seemed distracted since you came into my office. Are you well, Yowane-san?"

Haku flushed as she thought back over the past hour or so. Had she really been daydreaming? She shook her head, she shouldn't be letting her mind wander like that. But thinking about Luka it was so hard not to…

She gave another little shake of her head. "Orders, secrecy, lessons, contributions, future plans. I heard everything you said Director Hatsune. Please forgive me for the disobedience, but I'm not sorry I did it. They needed my help, and I would do it again." Haku drew that calm serenity around herself. She found people really did respond to it even if they didn't realize, and besides it kept them from seeing her as a stuttering nervous wreck, which is what she imagined everyone saw her as that first day. "I will try to be more careful in the future but if I can help those I care about I always will. As to the future, I don't know. I was in University before this, and I didn't think I have any especially useful skills to draw on that could contribute, but I will however I can."

Director Hatsune was considering her as she spoke, having steepled his fingers together and rested his elbows on the the conference table to gaze at her over his knuckles in a rather imperious fashion. "Yowane-san, I believe you have the potential be a great asset to the Vocaloids, and I want you to do whatever you think will make you happy. But if you wish to stay here, then everything you do must have our organization's well being at it's core."

"Mhm…" She couldn't use her parent's money for anything related to the Vocaloids, she had to find something else. Maybe she could do something with Luka…? It would certainly let them be together more, and she'd get to see the beautiful pink haired girl in some of her pretty stage outfits up close…

"Yowane-san!"

"Ha?" Haku jumped.

Director Hatsune peered over his steepled fingers. "You are certain you're well? You seem distracted and flushed."

Haku's flush deepened. "I'm fine, Director."

"Because if there's something bothering you which could be a potential issue for our organization I should be made aware of it."

She shook her head, "No director, nothing at all like that I promise."

"Very well. You are dismissed, Yowane-san."

Haku stood and gave a small curtsey before turning to leave but she was already gone in her mind again, a beautiful pink hair framed face filling her mind's eye. She wondered what Luka was doing right then. Was Luka thinking about her, too?

As she departed the conference room she passed the other directors beginning to file in from the hallway, for some meeting presumably. She stood aside politely to let them pass and pulled out her pink sparkly iPhone. Luka and Miku both swore to her that Android was better but Haku had modified her iPhone heavily and was reluctant to have to start over with a new one. She tapped the text message folder hopefully but it had no new notifications, so she tapped Luka's name and sent her one. " _I miss you."_ Once the directors had all gone by she went off in search of Miku. Her light blue haired friend had been avoiding her the past few days, ever since the park… She felt so upset for Miku but couldn't quite put her finger on why. She cared about Miku as much as she did about Luka, but she couldn't sort out what exactly was going on or why it hurt so bad getting closer to Luka when Miku was near. She wanted to talk to her friend, to clear things up, but she had to pin her down first. So she went about her search through the Compound. She started with her bedroom, then checked the bathroom and the dance studio she used as an art gallery but they were all empty. She poked her head into the relaxation room on her way passed and saw nothing and continued down the corridor to the small cafeteria which is where Haku found her, sitting with two other girls talking at a table.

Gumi in a well cut plain black t-shirt and jeans and Teto with her hair back in short pigtails that were curled into spirals that tapered down into points just short of her shoulders wearing a deep red one piece dress with frilly lace at the hem around her knees. Their tones of voice sounded serious with Gumi and Teto leaning in toward Miku intently. "You're sure it's as bad as all that?" Gumi asked tentatively. "I mean, I know things have gotten intense but…"

Haku stopped by the edge of the doorway uncertain if she should interrupt, watching the pretty blue haired girl fiddle with a packet of pocky. "It's… not great, Gumi." The plastic wrap twisted in her grasp making crinkling noises but didn't actually give. Miku twisted harder at the plastic.

"Maybe there's some kind of misunderstanding…?" Teto ventured, and Haku blinked. How much had Miku told the other two? Surely not all of it…? She found herself replaying the last few weeks in her head, specifically the past couple of days, trying to think of what all had been said or done in front of Teto and Gumi.

"No, I don't think there is… not from what I saw…" Miku's face was anguished and Haku wanted to run out and hug her but shame kept her rooted to the spot. She cared so much for Miku but she didn't know what to do. Miku twisted the pocky packet the other way and her naturally chime like voice grew strained. "I just… I hope they're happy, honestly. I just… want them to be happy…" A tear hit the top of the table in front of the pocky in her grip and her hands began to tremble.

"Miku…" Gumi sounded sorrowful. "Maybe… maybe we could help? Teto-chin and I… we could talk to them for you and-"

"No!" Miku's shaking hands gave a convulsive twist on the packet as she exclaimed her objection and the plastic tore free violently. Sticks of pocky exploded everywhere, scattering across part of the table and raining down over the edge of it onto the floor. The other girls jumped at the sudden spray of sweets but Miku started at them blankly for a moment as the chocolate covered biscuit sticks settled where they landed, then she gently set the ruined packet down, propped her elbows on the table, and put her face in her hands. "It's kind of you to offer, but no thank you." Came her voice, muffled through her fingers and around her palms.

Haku couldn't take it anymore and moved into the little cafeteria and up to the table. Gumi and Teto jumped at her silent approach and Gumi stammered in surprise, "H-Haku!" Which was all the confirmation she needed that they'd been talking about her and what had happened in the park. She wondered how much Miku had told them but that didn't seem important right then. Miku's head came up in startelement when she heard Gumi say her name but Haku just knelt down and began calmly scooping the scattered pocky on the floor into a pile. The other three watched her silently, Miku with intent green eyes, the other two afraid of saying anything that might cause an outburst. Once she had collected all the pocky on one spot on the floor she gathered them up and moved over to dump them in a trash bin, then went to the sink for a napkin and came back to the table. She laid it down delicately and collected what was left of the sticks on the table onto it, then finally looked up to the twintailed girl. Miku was still staring at her intently and Haku offered a calm smile and gently pushed the napkin over in front of Miku.

"It works better if you put them in your mouth, Miku-chan."

Abruptly Miku threw her arms around Haku's waist and squeezed her in an awkward sideways hug. Gumi giggled and Teto smiled ever so faintly and Haku blushed a little bit. "Haku-chan! Thank you." She didn't think Miku meant for the pocky but when her friend pulled back she was wiping at her eyes. "Here, sit with us!"

Haku pulled a chair out between Miku and the redhead and sat carefully arranging the plain black skirt she was wearing. She'd developed a taste for the silk blouses that Miku seemed so fond of even if they did seem to cling in overly flattering ways, and she wore a deep dark red one now with a black bow keeping her snowy white hair back behind her head. Miku had on a bright purple blouse and dark purple skirt. Haku smiled pleasantly making sure she was still wrapped in her outward serene calm. Her friend seemed to want to gloss over what had happened for the time being, so Haku went along with it. Maybe she'd bring it up later.

Miku smiled but her pretty green eyes seemed a little strained at the corners, and Haku thought it best to start the conversation on a different topic. "I was wondering Miku-chan. Why did you never tell me before about how you're an idol like Luka-chin? I only heard you mention it for the first time the other day."

Miku sighed and shot a piercing look at Gumi who shrank back a bit but kept smiling. It had come up in conversation at the fair the other day and Gumi talked a lot. "I used to be, I'm not anymore." Miku said turning back to Haku. "I had… problems with it." She picked up one of her rescued pocky sticks and inspected it closely for a moment before putting the tip between her lips.

Haku saw motion out of the corner of her eye and glanced over. Teto was staring at the vending machines with a wistful expression. They were all empty. The cafeteria really wasn't great. She glanced back at Miku. "What happened?"

Miku let out a frustrated sigh and waved the stick in an annoyed gesture. "My managers just never wanted to let me do things my way. I wish I'd had the manager Luka-chin has now. She seems great."

"So you really do miss it?" Haku asked curiously. "All those eyes on you?" Haku couldn't imagine.

"Of course she misses it! Who wouldn't?" Gumi practically bubbled, and Haku couldn't help staring at her. Who would have thought there was someone even bubblier than Miku?

For her part Miku looked annoyed more than anything right that moment. "It doesn't matter if there's one pair of eyes on you or a hundred, or a thousand. A true idol doesn't perform because of the size of the crowd, but for the expression of the art. The managers I always had never seemed to get that. So I quit."

The look on Gumi's face said that wasn't exactly right, or maybe only a part of the story, but Haku felt her heart going out to the pretty blue haired girl and suddenly she found herself getting an idea of sorts. She wasn't sure how possible it would be, but…

At that moment she heard a loud gurgling and everyone's heads whipped around to Teto. The red haired girl flushed in embarrassment and Gumi let out a bubbly laugh. "Breakfast was hours ago huh? Too bad there's nothing here." Miku smiled a bit, relieved at the change of topic, but Haku thought maybe her friend was just covering it up.

Haku's iPhone buzzed and she lifted it to check the screen. A text from Luka?! She opened the notification and saw it. " _I miss you too. Lunch?"_

"Haven't you switched to an Android yet, Haku-chan?" Miku teased but Haku just flashed her a small smile before replying. " _Can Miku-chan and her two friends come?"_

Gumi glanced from Haku to Miku. "She's so mysterious isn't she? That serene calm with those red eyes."

"She is." Miku giggled.

"Maybe she really is a witch or something." Teto said with a flat tone, but it sounded more playful than mocking and it wasn't the first time she'd made the joke. Haku thought they must be teasing her because she was being rude and texting.

" _Of course they can. Marajin. Miku knows where it is. I'm close, I'll get a table."_ Came the text reply. Haku looked up up and slid her phone into a little fold in the skirt that concealed a secret pocket. Handy, that. She hated having to carry a handbag. "I'm sorry for being rude with my phone, but that was Luka-chin. Would everyone like to come out for lunch? Our treat." She said 'our' because she wasn't sure from the way Luka answered who would be paying for the meal but she was happy to if her idol didn't.

It certainly had an effect at the table. Teto blinked and nodded eagerly and Gumi got all wide eyed at the notion of having lunch with Luka but she threw her hand up and gave a little cheer. Miku smiled in a way that, to Haku at least, seemed both pleased but sad at the same time. Maybe it was the further tightening at the corners of her blue eyes? She wasn't sure, but everyone agreed so they all got up from the table and filed out of the little cafeteria. Haku took out her iPhone once more. "I'll let Luka-chin know we're all on the way." She said and began typing out a text as they walked, only paying half attention. " _We're all on the way-"_

"Oh, Haku-chan, that reminds me." Miku said, drawing a keycard with a chip embedded in it from her handbag. She apparently had no problem carrying one. The keycard was white with a sky blue bordered edge and had her picture on it with her name printed beneath it, but no other details. She waved it at Haku by way of emphasizing it, and Haku nodded, she had her own in her pocket. "Mom said to tell you your ID badge security chip has had it's accesses cleared for additional use since you've been out in the field a couple of times now, but you won't have authorization for everything all at once. Things come in time."

"Access to what kinds of things? The cars? I don't even know how to drive." Haku asked curiously as she looked at Miku's card and finished the text without thinking with the other. " _-be there soon, chu!"_

"Really? Driving is easy. Yeah, the cars, some of them anyway, certain computer terminals for network access, the underground areas." Miku blinked and winced at herself. "Nevermind that last part…"

Haku would have responded with intense curiosity (all the high tech in the Vocaloid Compound fascinated her to no end) but she was rather distracted by what she had just texted without thinking. She stared at her phone with a flush in her cheeks and a look on her face like it had somehow betrayed her. She had already hit send, she couldn't take it back without adding another text and looking foolish. Did she want to take it back though…?

Miku caught a look at her face and glanced down at Haku's phone. "What's wrong Haku-chan?" The other two looked back and Haku hurriedly held her phone down by her leg so they couldn't see it. "N-Nothing!"

But the damage was done, Miku had seen. She laughed and shook her head, her light blue side ponytails swishing about her. "Don't worry Haku-chan, it's probably fine."

"Fine?! But what if it's not fine?! She hasn't answered yet! What's taking so long to-!" She cut off as she realized she might be saying too much in front of Teto and Gumi, and she took a couple of deep breaths to pull her serenity back to herself, but she couldn't make the flush go away entirely.

After a long couple of moments her iPhone plinged and her arm jerked up so she could stare at the response text. " _Chu! 3"_ Haku's insides turned to butter and she felt warm all over. Teto and Gumi exchanged looks and Miku giggled and got them moving again toward the garages, Haku too busy staring at the screen to notice the even further tightening at the corners of her friend's eyes.

The garage was emptier than usual. Even though it was never anywhere near capacity several of the spaces which were normally occupied were out. Miku began to lead them toward a giant black SUV and when she caught an odd questioning look from Haku she let out a sigh. "Daddy revoked my authorization to access the Ferrari for a week as punishment."

"Punishment for wha-" Haku started, then winced and bit back the question as she realized, but Miku nodded anyway as she threw the driver door of the SUV open. "For disobeying an order from a director when I let you come with me to the park the other day." She hopped in and the door slammed shut loudly to show what she thought of that.

Haku wondered if it would be rude to just assume the front seat but the decision was taken from her as Gumi and Teto both took back seats. She wondered why they had done that but got in beside Miku anyway. Then she got at least a partial answer as Miku inserted her ID card into the chip reader built into the dash to activate the SUV with her credentials and started the engine. She didn't think anyone was supposed to hear besides Gumi but Teto's voice floated up to her, probably because the redhead was in the seat right behind hers.

"I hope they have good bread wherever we're going."

Whatever Gumi replied was swallowed by the sound of the garage door cranking as Miku pulled the vehicle out of the garage and out onto the street with much less zeal than she had shown in the Ferrari. Then the green haired girl spoke up from behind Miku.

"So where are we going?"

Miku blinked and glanced briefly at Haku. "Where ARE we going?"

"Oh!" Haku realized she hadn't actually said. "Luka-chin said some place called Marajin? She said you'd know where it was, Miku-chan."

There was a gasp from Teto, a low whistle of awe from Gumi, and a wince from Miku. No doubt about it, her friend definitely winced. They had been spending a lot of time together the past few months; singing practice, dance lessons, talking idly, sharing meals. Most friendships developed slowly over weeks or months of seeing a person only an hour or two a day in public settings, but they had been nearly constant companions the past few moons and she had been seeing Miku get more agitated by the day. In fact if she was being honest with herself she didn't think she could have gotten by without Miku's support. Haku didn't need any of that though to recognize a wince.

"What's wrong? Do you not know it?" Haku asked.

"Oh, I know it. It's where Luka-chin and I had our first- conversation."

Haku didn't think the two in the back seat could have caught the slight stumble in the pretty blue haired girl's words, and they certainly couldn't see her blushing, but Haku could and did. She opened her mouth to say something but she got such a steely warning glance from Miku that she shut her mouth again. The silence didn't last long as the girls in the backseat were apparently oblivious to all this and still caught up on their destination.

"Marajin is like super high class." Gumi blurted. "Will they really let us in?" She paused a moment eying everyone's clothing in the car. "Well you're all dressed well enough but I'm not!"

"It's fine, Luka-chin and I know the managers. It'll be okay with them since you're with us." Miku reassured her.

"Wow I almost feel like I'm important now." Gumi giggled.

"Or you're some kind of groupie." Teto scoffed then let out a squeaked "Ow!" when Gumi pinched her leg.

"If I'm a groupie then so are you." Gumi declared and got a glare from Teto.

"I'm not a groupie, I'm just connected to one."

"Hey that's not nice!"

They continued the back and forth like that the entire way to the restaurant until finally Miku pulled the big black SUV into the parking lot. The girls all got out and closed their doors and filed inside the reception area where there was a pretty hostess seating people.

"Greetings and welcome to Marajin. Table for-" She paused a moment eyeing their clothes. Designer or not from what Haku could see of the other guests they were a few digits shy of the clientele's average price range. Then she saw Miku and her eyes widened in recognition. "Oh, Hatsune-sama, hello. It has been some time. Table for- four?" She barely paused this time. Miku really did have pull here.

"Hello, Orona-san. Actually Megurine Luka should already be waiting for us."

The hostess looked over her list then nodded. "Ah yes Megurine-sama came in not long ago. She asked for your favorite table. If you will please all follow me?"

Marajin really was high class, everything about it was lush and grand. The furniture was all carved and finely gilded, the table cloths were delicately patterned with lacework, the plates were all expensive China, the utensils were all fine porcelain or glinted like they might actually be silver, the lights and light frames had the finest rice paper covers with some of the most gorgeous patterns Haku had ever seen, even the carpet was soft and shiny.

The table the hostess led them too was in a far back corner, a round table rather than square, and Luka rose from her seat as they approached. Haku felt herself grow warm all over as the ravishing pink haired idol's gaze met hers and they smiled at each other a little nervously, momentarily oblivious to the rest of the world despite sudden anxiety. Luka ran an unconscious hand over her sides to smooth her flower patterned red designer shirt then she twitched toward the seat next to hers like she wanted to offer it but then stopped and winced a bit.

All at once the world rushed back in and it became painfully obvious that that they were behaving foolishly in public. More, that no one had sat at the table because of them and were looking at them, Teto and Gumi in confusion, Miku with a sympathetic look yet with that same tightening at the corners of her eyes. They both flushed and Haku was so embarrassed she looked away but Luka, ever the confident in charge type, covered smoothly, gesturing at the table, "Please, will everyone join me?"

Regardless of the awkwardness Haku was still quick to sit beside her idol, pulling the chair out beside the pink haired beauty and seating herself. Miku took the seat on her other side, then Teto beside Miku, and Gumi between Teto and Luka. They received their menus and there was a great chorus of appreciative murmurs and shock at the prices on the fancy restaurant's menu. Haku had been to places like this before on the rare times her parents were around so she wasn't surprised, but she didn't tend to frequent these sorts of places often. Miku and Luka however acted as though there were nothing out of the ordinary, considering what they wanted as normal. When the waitress came and took their orders Luka spoke up first without preamble, again taking the lead as she always seemed to.

"Can we start with a group order of sushi? A few of each roll please."

"And a couple of sweet bread plates?" Haku spoke up, then gave a sly conspiratorial wink at Teto, receiving a surprised blink in return.

Luka smiled, "And sweet bread." Then they went around the table and ordered a side dish each to go with the sushi, various types of noodles mostly, and the server collected their menus and went back to have their order prepared. Luka turned to the rest of the table. "It's good to see you again Kasane-san, Megpoid-san. How has your training been going?" Haku blinked at that, realizing the idol had only really interacted with the two the other day at the festival. Haku herself had made good friends with them in the times when Miku and Luka weren't around, so she'd sort of gotten used to them.

"F-Fine, Megurine-san!" Gumi said practically quivering with glee at being addressed by the idol.

Teto rolled her eyes. "She's lying because she wants you to like her, Megurine-san."

Gumi shot Teto an offended look. "Teto!"

Teto's mouth curled into a little mocking smile. "Am I wrong? Why don't you sing a few bars for Megurine-san?"

Gumi flushed deeply and hissed at her again, "Teto, stop it!"

"Why don't you, Teto-chan?" Miku asked casually, and the redhead's cheeks colored faintly.

Haku hid a smile at their antics by taking a sip of water, and Miku managed a slightly more sympathetic smile. "Learning to control the sound waves can be tricky at first, but you'll get the hang of it." The twintailed girl had sponsored the other two so she knew precisely how far along their training was.

"It's true," Luka added reaching for her own water glass. "Not everyone manages it their first few times, or even the first week or two sometimes."

"Really?" Teto asked mildly, but she looked slightly relieved. Teto was definitely not one to wear her emotions on her sleeve.

Haku set her own water glass down but left her hand on it incase she had to hide another smile, but she tried to keep her outer serene calm in place instead.

Gumi had her face screwed up in a dubious way and she glanced from Miku to Haku to Luka and back again. "But we heard that Yowane-san got it her first try! Her first test even, without any training!"

"Haku-chin is an unusual case." Luka said, her hand coming down with her water glass. Having used the hand nearest Haku when she set it down their hands bumped and their arms brushed. They both stopped and looked then glanced at each other before flushing and jerking their arms apart, Haku nearly knocking her glass over in the process but managing to catch it at the last instant. Why was this so awkward?! It wasn't like it was a… a date…!

Miku rolled her eyes at the awkward pair and looked at Gumi. "Haku-chan is a first, we've never seen anyone do what she has in so short a time, and she has higher potential than anyone we've ever seen, even higher than Luka-chin and myself. If it makes you feel better even I couldn't get a sonic wave until my second test."

The two girls turned big round eyes on Haku who shrank back a bit at the intense looks. "Even stronger than you two?!" Gumi gushed.

"Not… not THAT much stronger…" Haku murmured

"She's not stronger yet, she has a little higher potential." Luka added. She sounded proud of course, but there was a tiny note of… jealousy? Haku doubted anyone else heard it, but she could. The pink haired beauty was definitely the competitive type, and before Haku she'd rated highest in potential. She supposed it was only natural for Luka to resent it a little. But… Haku couldn't help wonder… did she hold it against her…?

"Right now Haku-chan isn't much stronger than you two!" Miku said brightly. "In fact, we could probably do some group practice later, get everyone harmonizing. Maaaaaaaaaaybe even try your guys' first Resonances."

That caused everyone's heads to turn, even Luka's. "Are you sure that's…"

Miku waved a dismissive hand. "It's fine, we'll both be there." She leveled a meaningful look at Luka, her green eyes glinting in the soft light of the restaurant. Luka met the gaze without so much as a blink and gave a nod. Haku stopped a moment to glance between the two, her head turning side to side. It had never occurred to Haku before that moment that for all of Miku's cutesy bubbly girly exterior there was a will of iron beneath. Suddenly she saw her friend in a new light, like a sword wrapped in a silk sheath. It would be a tough call who would win that staring contest, but fortunately there was no need to find out. The two powerful Vocaloids seemed to come to an agreement and broke eye contact simultaneously.

Teto's face remained passive but Gumi's face fell. "How can we practice with the likes of Yowane-san if she's the highest potential ever? That makes you three the only S Rank Vocaloids. Teto and I are only A Ranks. We're like ten factors weaker than you guys."

"That doesn't matter." Luka said with a kindly smile. "All that's required is that you're the same strength right now. Down the road if the story changes, then all you have to do is avoid a few missteps and you'll be fine."

They both brightened at that, even Teto. She really did have a pretty face, her frown just distracted from it a bit. "I bet we would make a great practice group." Haku told them with a smile, to even brighter looks.

Just then the sweet breads and sushi plates started coming out, a couple of servers with trays bringing them with extra plates. Teto went right for the bread with the first genuinely delighted look Haku had ever seen on her face, and Gumi put a couple of maki on her plate. Haku wasn't actually that hungry so she just sort of sat back and watched the others. She noted with some interest that Luka seemed to be most partial to spicy sauces and crunchy tempura as well as anything with shrimp, while Miku's favorites apparently revolved around seaweed and crab, though they both took a little of everything. At some point Luka noticed she wasn't eating and an impulse seemed to overtake the pink haired beauty.

"Here, Haku-chin, try this. Ahhhh!" She raised her own chopsticks with a bit of shrimp tempura roll.

Haku flushed deeply at being fed like this in front of everyone, but a quick glance showed the other girls seemed to be absorbed in their own food at the moment, so she leaned forward for the bite. Luka teased her a bit, pulling the chopsticks back a little at the last moment, making her stretch for it but let her have it with a soft giggle. Her own cheeks were slightly flushed but nowhere near as bad as Haku's own were. She caught a glance of Miku out of the corner of her eye, and her light blue haired friend seemed… maybe a little too absorbed in her spider roll.

Haku's obvious embarrassment didn't seem to deter the idol in the least. She got another bite pushed toward her, eating purely because of the pleasure of having her idol feeding her and no other reason. She heard a giggle from across the table and caught Gumi staring at them with a sly look in her eye. What must they all be thinking of her? Her flush deepened further and thankfully Luka went back to eating her own sushi. She seemed to realize she'd caused a lot of embarrassment however because Haku suddenly felt Luka's free left hand on her knee under the table. Haku took a moment to pull her calm serenity over herself once more and waited for her blush to die down then she casually slid her right hand under the table to grip Luka's. They each gave the other a little squeeze and Luka continued the conversation with the other girls where it had left off, offering pointers and tips for training.

Suddenly Miku pushed her plate back and stood up from the table. She gave a muttered "Excuse me a moment…" and walked off toward the back of the restaurant and the 'restroom' signs. Haku watched her go with an odd look on her face. Had… her eyes been wet?

Haku waited a few moments for decency then said, "Me too." And stood up to follow.

The women's room was empty except for Miku so far as Haku could see as she eased the door open as gently and soundlessly as possible. She was right, her friend was crying, a soft sobbing that shook her shoulders slightly as she hunched over a sink with her back to the door. She didn't want to alarm the pretty light blue haired girl but she wanted to help so she let out a soft tentative, "Miku-chan? What's wrong?"

Miku's entire body tensed up and her sobbing abruptly cut off with a choked sound, but her shoulders continued to shake gently. "N-Nothing…" She couldn't stop her voice cracking. "P-Please… Haku-chan… c-can you j-just… give me a m-minute…?"

Haku's heart was breaking a little for her friend. It was true that they had become close very quickly, but then she and Luka had progressed quickly too, in part due to the fact that Haku had latched on quickly because she had never had any real friends before in her whole life, and also in part because they were Vocaloids; their lives depended on each other and their powers were driven by instinct and emotion, which caused them to act more quickly than might seem normal or even appropriate to most. She didn't know what was going on, but was beginning to learn to listen to her instincts, and her instincts were telling her now that something was wrong between her and her friend and her idol.

On the spur of the moment she rushed forward and gave the other girl a quick hug and whispered into her ear, "When you want to talk, please come to me, I want to help." She squeezed Miku around the shoulders, but the other girl didn't move or reply so Haku left the restroom and went back to the table. She found the other three absorbed in their noodles and idle chatter so she walked up behind Luka and rather than sit she leaned down and pitched her voice low for the idol's ear. "Can we talk outside for a moment?"

Luka started to grin at the implications but when she caught Haku's worried tone she turned more somber and nodded. They excused themselves and stepped out the back door to the alley way. Once outside Haku didn't waste time. "I think there's something wrong with Miku-chan." She told the gorgeous pink haired girl. She related everything she had been seeing but only just now was connecting in her head. Miku's odd pauses, the tightening of her eyes at moments when Haku was being absorbed in Luka's attentions, and now the crying in the bathroom. "I think…" she paused a second and squared her shoulders, taking a deep breath. Neither of them were going to like this. "I think you and I need to have a conversation about yours and Miku-chan's… involvement."

Luka didn't so much as bat an eyelash at that. As cool under pressure as a mountain lake was her idol, and though it was likely a very uncomfortable topic she had to talk about it. "I suppose I owe you an explanation, Haku-chin." She said quietly but resolutely. She glanced back toward the restaurant door before closing her blue eyes all together as she looked inward for a moment. Then when she opened them she asked, "How much has Miku-chan told you?"

"Nothing." Haku said honestly without hesitation. "She wanted us to talk first, and she's trying not to force it, but something about this situation is hurting her, and… and…" She took another deep breath. "Luka-chin I…" Her heart was racing and she didn't want to say this but she had to. "I can't tell you how hard and fast my feelings have been developing, but… if there's something going on here… I don't… I don't want to hurt anyone…" Her red eyes began to tear up, but her outward calm was like iron.

Luka's own eyes looked moist but her grace and composure never wavered outwardly. Inwardly however she must have been a storm because she reached out for Haku's arm. "Haku-chin… you don't know what you mean to me…"

"I know." Haku whispered. "You know I know, you know what you saved me from. I don't want to hurt you, but I don't want to hurt her either. I have to know."

Luka swallowed a lump in her throat and nodded. "We'll talk, I promise. But not here, not right now. Let's… let's get Miku-chan home first, then we'll talk in private okay?"

Haku hesitated only a moment before giving a nod of acceptance and the two turned to head back into the restaurant, Luka putting a hand on Haku's arm again, and they both froze. Standing there in the doorway back into Marajin was a woman they had never seen before. She was darkly beautiful dressed all in black silks and lace from her neck to her skirts. She had flowing dark red hair nearly as long as Haku's held back by a black headband and red-orange eyes. Luka's grip tightened on Haku's arm as the woman raised one hand to point straight at the snowy white haired girl.

"Yowane Haku." She said in a voice perhaps a full scale step lower than Miku's. "You are mine."

Haku was speechless, but Luka didn't seem to be suffering from any such issue. "What do you want? Who are you?"

The woman turned her red-orange gaze on the idol with a curious cant to her head, as though only just noticing her. "My name is Juon Kiku, Vocaloid. Your interference with my children is bad enough, yet now you would lay claim to that which is mine?" There was no doubt that she was referring to Haku.

Luka scowled and used her free hand to swipe at the air in front of her in a defiant gesture. "Haku-chin is not yours to take."

The slight cant to Kiku's head increased to a full tilt. "She survived the turning process by one of my children. This makes her mine. You may not have her."

The idol put herself between Haku and the darkly beautiful woman, her earlier coolness under fire back, her crystal voice like a frozen mountain glacier. "If you want to take her you will have to go through me."

Kiku looked at the idol for a moment or two before nodding. "I accept your terms." Kiku lifted her arms in a slow graceful arch in front of her, and Luka responded with a cross step and a wrist flick. Both women let out a note at the same time, the idol's a high pitched piercing note, the darkly beautiful woman's a low reverberating tone as dark as she. There was a double boom to Haku's ear at least, one she knew no non-Vocaloid would be able to hear, and the sonic energies collided and…

Luka's higher sonic wave seemed to shatter from the reverberation of the lower one which came on. Luka was too experienced a Vocaloid to not already be changing steps, her instincts driving her movements, but she was caught unaware by the attack, surprised that this woman they had never seen before could possess the power of a trained Vocaloid. The lower energy wave caught the idol in the chest and Luka was sent flying backward to crash into some trash cans against the opposite wall of the back alley. There was a small sonic vibration even as she hit, cushioning her landing with another low note, but she still went down. The lingering energy waves from Kiku were dark and continued reverberating around Luka even after the idol lay still, seeming to sap at her strength and she let out a low moan.

"Luka!" Haku cried out turning to move toward her, but Kiku was right there beside her in a flash, staring into Haku's face… with now black swirling orb-like eyes.

"Yowane-Haku. You belong to me."

The door to the back of the restaurant bust open and Haku caught sight of swirling light blue pig tails as Miku ran over to Haku, then knelt down beside Luka. "I heard the sonics, are you hurt?"

"Only my pride." Luka responded as she got to her feet between the two. Haku could see Gumi and Teto in the doorway as well but they weren't coming out of the restaurant. Luka was a powerful Vocaloid and if she had been knocked flat they didn't have a chance with their half training.

"Yowane-Haku is mine." Kiku repeated to the three standing before her. She raised her arms in that fluid graceful motion again.

There were no words between them, there didn't seem to be a need for any. Luka and Miku stepped forward as one between Haku and Kiku. They stepped in unison, Luka cross stepping left foot over right, Miku right foot over left. Luka's left arm arched up over her head, left wrist roll, right hand on hip, Miku's right arm arched up over her head, right wrist roll, left hand on hip. Their voices harmonized perfectly from the first note even as Kiku's low reverberating tone sounded again. The two powerful Vocaloid's voices seemed to combine together on the second note of the scale, merge on the third, and was one voice on the fourth, and the light of the sonic wave forming seemed to envelop them both together, light pink and light blue blending together as one yet not changing color.

Haku's red eyes went wide as she instinctively understood, but she heard a gasp from the restaurant doorway from Gumi. "Resonance…"

The low reverberating note from Kiku seemed to slam into the light enveloping the pair and simply melt away. Kiku blinked in surprise, uncertainty showing in her red-orange eyes for the first time since she had shown up. Then the scale the pair were harmonizing suddenly changed pitched to a thunderous tempo, and the light pulsed, then came the boom. Haku threw her arms up to shield her eyes from the glare as a pure radiant light seemed to engulf the ally completely, but even despite that she couldn't take her eyes off the majestic sight.

Luka and Miku let the note fall away. The light faded, the sound died out, but they held their pose on the verge of unleashing it again. There didn't seem to be a need however. Kiku was picking herself up unsteadily from the opposite end of the alleyway some dozen meters away. She cast a dark glower at the pair and all but snarled, "This is not over, Vocaloids." Then she was gone, ducking out of the alley into the street beyond.

Miku made as if to chase her but Luka wavered unsteadily on her feet. Mid step the light blue haired girl swiveled as if to catch the idol but she wasn't as fast as Haku who was already right there, arms going around Luka's middle to hold her.

"I'm… I'm alright." Luka muttered. "Just… tired."

"We need to get her back." Miku said. "Wait here, I'll get the car." She ducked out of their end of the alley as Teto and Gumi came out, eyes wide at the scene. The raw display of power the two girls had put on had been impressive to say the least, and the evidence was all up and down the absolutely thrashed alley. Nothing stood upright; trash cans, boxes, bags, anything that had been out there had been blasted over like leaves in the wind by the sonic waves.

Haku reached into her pocket to take out a credit card and held it out toward the two. "Will you guys go in and settle the bill while Miku and I get Luka into the car?"

They nodded eager to be of help. Luka tried to object that she was going to get the meal but Haku shushed her as Gumi took the card and they disappeared back into the restaurant. Then they were alone for the moment, and Haku's worry finally surfaced.

"Don't scare me like that, Luka-chin…" She whispered to her idol as she helped hold her upright.

"Had to protect you… Haku-chin…" Luka smiled, her beautiful pink hair a tousled mess but not detracting from her appeal in the least.

Haku realized that her eyes were getting moist again. Why would she be this scared after it was all over yet not during the confrontation? "You were wonderful, Luka-chin. You really were…"

The roar of the engine announced Miku's arrival with the car at the mouth of the alley. Haku helped Luka into the back third row seat, and the idol lay out across it with her head on Haku's lap. "Teto and Gumi are coming." Haku said up to Miku in the front who nodded back. The two weren't long in returning and in only a few short moments they were on the road again heading back to the Compound.

"Is she okay?" Gumi asked looking over the back of the middle seat she was sitting in as she handed Haku back the credit card..

"I'm okay…" Luka murmured.

"Shhh." Haku whispered soothingly, gently running a hand over the top of Luka's head in her lap.

"Did she take a hit?" Miku asked from the front.

"She got thrown back into the trash cans, but she got up afterward, it seemed like she was fine." Haku said, trying hard to keep the worry out of her voice. "It didn't look like a lot of energy to me, just one overpowering wave, but there was this odd dark effect of some kind, I don't know."

"Shattered… my wave…" Luka sounded like she'd be asleep any minute, so Haku repeated for Miku's to hear up front.

Miku glanced back in the rearview mirror. "That explains it. The energy expended to make a wave is intense, but having it shattered is a lot like running at a dead sprint then getting the wind knocked out of you all at once. That combined with our Resonance, which also takes a lot of energy, and whatever this dark effect was you're talking about, it's a wonder she's still awake. She'll probably sleep the rest of the day and night away."

"Then she's okay?" The pleading in Haku's voice was very unbecoming, and enough to draw every eye in the SUV with an appraising look, but Miku's voice floated back quietly.

"She'll be fine, Haku-chan… just relax…"


	11. Vocaloid Academy Chapter 11

"This is very troubling indeed." Director Hatsune said as they all stood in the medical examination room beside the exam table on which the sleeping Luka was stretched out. As soon as they had gotten her inside Doctor Hatsune had begun examining her, hooking up a few traditional pieces of medical equipment as well as some special sonic testers for Vocaloids. While she had examined the idol Director Hatsune had questioned them about what had happened. Miku had added her parts to the explanation but most of the questions were directed at Haku because she had been out in the alleyway the entire time with Luka. Haku had felt more as though she were being interrogated than debriefed but she thought maybe that was just because of Director Hatsune's naturally deep bass voice. "A rogue element with the powers of a trained Vocaloid and exhibiting signs of a Souldrinker at the same time… most troubling indeed." He looked around at everyone. "We must address the board. Are you finished, Mira?"

Doctor Hatsune sighed and nodded as she straightened up from the exam table. "Yes, there's nothing I can really do for her. She's asleep, and should wake on her own just fine. She should be put to bed in her own room to rest."

"We'll take care of that, mom." Miku said, and her parents nodded and left to see to the board. The girls found a wheelchair and between the two of them didn't have any problems getting the sleeping form of Luka into it. They wheeled her out of the medical room and through the halls to her room in silence, closing the door behind themselves. They got Luka up into bed, then hesitated a moment, glancing at each other nervously as they realized at the same time.

"We have to… she can't…" Haku swallowed and blushed furiously. "She can't… sleep in her clothes…"

To her surprise Miku's blush was just as bright and furious as her own was. The pretty light blue haired girl nodded though, her long knee length pigtails bobbing from the motion. In the soft light of Luka's bedroom her green eyes seemed to glitter "We'll have to... " She paused but a look of determination set on her face. "It's only to take care of her. That's all." Miku looked up at Haku, her gaze meeting the red eyed stare of the snowy white haired girl and Haku nodded back.

"That's all." She agreed, and they glanced at Luka's dresser. The idol's room in the Vocaloid Compound was neat and tidy from top to bottom while maintaining a distinctly feminine feel by way of lace trimming all about in pinks and reds. The sheets on her bed, the bed canopy, the cloth covers on top of the dresser and makeup stand, even the curtain edges. Haku felt distinctly comfortable in the room, but not because of the shades of pink and red everywhere, but because the room was so much a reflection of the idol herself; bold but feminine. They retrieved a clean nightgown from the dresser and brought it to the bed. Luka looked so peaceful, so beautiful. They had another round of blushes and looked at each other.

"Who should…?" Miku started then stopped with a vague sort of gesture at the pink haired beauty.

Haku blinked and tried to stamp down a fit of jealousy that surged within her. "I think… maybe you should…"

Miku blinked in surprise. "Why me?"

"Well… because you guys… I mean you used too… I mean you have a history… haven't you… already… seen…" Each word came quieter and quieter until the last were barely audible. Haku didn't think it was possible for either of them to blush any more fiercely than they already were but they managed it.

"We… Haku-chan… no, we never… I mean… no I never… saw…" Miku was mumbling too.

"Oh… I uhm… I'm sorry for prying…"

"No it's… it's ok, it…"

They trailed off into silence and after a time finally looked up. "Oh this is just silly! We've all three seen both the other two in the baths! This is no different. Ok, how about I'll… remove… and you… put on…?" Haku gestured at the nightgown and Miku nodded. Haku wondered if her friend's heart were racing as fast as hers was. Luka was perfect in every formed way, every curve, every swell, every delicate line. She could barely breathe as she unlaced and removed the idol's knee high stiletto boots and socks, and her hands trembled so hard as she fiddled with the button of Luka's pants she was convinced she would end up shaking the pink haired beauty awake. But Luka never stirred as Haku got first her black designer jeans off then her black shirt with short sleeves that left the shoulders bare. One of her warrior's outfits, as Haku thought of them… it seemed undressing an unconscious girl was nothing like seeing her in the bath...

When she was finally done she sat back, her cheeks positively fire, and she heard Miku whisper to herself, "I honestly can't tell which of you is more beautiful…" A reverent tone that Haku was sure she wasn't supposed to hear. If she thought her cheeks were fire before they were an inferno now, and as Miku realized she had been heard her own erupted in the same way. "Oh Gods… Haku-chan… I…"

Haku couldn't stand it and turned her head away. "Just… please… will you…?" She trailed off and sat there on the edge of the bed listening to clothing rustle as Miku worked the nightgown down over Luka's body. Her bra and panties were much darker than the nightie but neither of them were anywhere near brave enough to do anything about Luka's underwear.

When they were finally done and had gotten the idol tucked in they looked at each other. "Now what?" Miku asked.

"I'm going to get a few things from my room and stay in here with her… I want to be here when she wakes up." Haku answered, and Miku nodded and turned to go.

"I understand. I'll... leave you two alone…"

Haku reached out to catch her friend's wrist and Miku looked back questioningly. "Will you… wait with me? Talk with me?"

For a moment she hesitated and Haku was sure the other girl was still hurting over the park but after a moment Miku swallowed and nodded. "I would like that…" Abruptly her tummy gurgled and she blinked and giggled. "Can we get something to eat though? I'm starving!"

Haku couldn't help letting out a little giggle of her own and nodded. "I suppose our lunch was awhile ago now and was interrupted besides."

"And you barely ate anything at all Haku-chan!" Miku exclaimed, then her eyes widened in a look of surprised revelation. "Come to think of it, I don't think I've ever seen you eat more than a few bites of something at a time! Seriously how can you eat so little?!"

Haku just smiled at the other girl not really having an answer for that. They had been in the little cafeteria that afternoon and it had been completely empty at the time but they went and checked again anyway on the off chance it had been stocked in the past few hours but found the vending machines still barren. Neither of them wanted to go too far from Luka though so going out wasn't that appealing to either girl.

"There's a convenience store down the street that might have something…?" Miku ventured, and Haku nodded not really caring right then where they went so long as it wasn't too far.

The little store around the corner of the block opposite the Compound's front entrance was cramped and not very well laid out in Haku's opinion, but it did have just about every conceivable amenity one might want in a convenience store; everything from junk food to random bits of medicines and even tools. They walked around the few short isles looking at their options, and Haku was not surprised in the least when her friend seemed to like the look of everything she saw.

"Ooooooh look Haku-chan, they have shrimp chips! I loooooooove shrimp chips! And rice candy! And there's a little stand with different kinds of breads that all look waaaaaaaaay better than what we usually get in our cafeteria and they have all kinds of drinks, sodas and juice and teas OMG JASMINE TEA I looooooooove Jasmine tea I need Jasmine tea and shrimp chips and OHMYGOSH Haku-chan look at that pocky stand they have like a dozen kinds all stacked up on a display table we have to split a couple flavors but don't pick from the bottom out they'll all fall over but don't pick from the top either or you'll make the display look funny but that one's okay yeah and that one too and don't forget a strawberry and oh you didn't get a tea here I'll grab you a Jasmine like mine it's so good trust me it'll go great with the pocky and a couple of red bean buns I love red bean don't you love red bean? Oh and look over there-!"

Haku let herself be pulled pulled along up and down the isles by the pretty light blue twintailed girl as her onslaught of bubbliness seemed go on and on with no pause or end in sight but she honestly didn't mind. Miku had her by the hand and occasionally leaned against her when reaching for things on shelves and Haku just smiled. It felt good to be out together after Miku had been avoiding her recently. A part of her felt bad for enjoying herself like this while Luka was unconscious, but Doctor Hatsune had said she was just asleep and would wake up so there was really nothing to worry about.

Once they'd gathered everything Miku wanted they made their way up to the counter to check out. The guy behind the register was somewhere around his middle years with shaggy hair and a weathered face but sharp eyes. He rang up the pile of random things and announced their total and the two girls pulled credit cards at the same time then stopped to look at each other.

"Oh no, Haku-chan, it's okay I'll get this."

"Nono, I'll get it." Haku said shaking her head.

Miku whipped her own head side to side as well, her twintails coming dangerously close to knocking over a magazine pile on the counter behind her. "No way, I picked most if this I out, I'll get it."

"I'd be happy to though." Haku tried to insist.

"Maybe next time but this one is mine."

"Oh but I-" Haku began but was cut off by the clerk.

"Come on now, which of you is going to buy for your girlfriend?"

Both off their heads whipped around at that and their eyes widened in shock. "Eh?!" Was all Haku could manage.

"G-Girlfriend…?!" Miku squeaked.

The clerk looked from one to the other and back then smiled apologetically. "Are you not? I'm sorry, you just looked so natural together while you were shopping, and then the bickering over who would pay seemed to me like a lover's spat. My mistake."

The two girls traded embarrassed looks and Miku set her card down on the counter. The clerk took it and swiped it before setting it back down and bagged their items for them while they put their plastic away without saying anything further. They were still blushing when they left the store to return to the Compound and made their way back to Luka's room in silence, each thinking about what it would be like if it were true, if they really were girlfriends. For her part Haku knew she'd already had similar thoughts in past weeks, and she couldn't help but wonder what Miku thought. But then, she'd had the same thoughts about Luka. She didn't think of herself as a dirty or perverted person, but the thoughts came unbidden to her mind at the most random of times, and to her shame she couldn't say they were unwelcome. Then there was that kiss in the park… she glanced sideways at Miku, staring at her soft lips. Gods… she was awful…

Once back in the idol's room Miku simply plopped down in the middle of the floor and began spreading things out. "Here Haku-chan. Try this Jasmine tea."

Haku stayed standing where she was just inside the door for a moment and squeezed her eyes shut. "Miku-chan… Can we talk? About… about what's been happening lately with-"

"No, please." Miku whispered cutting her off gently, and Haku opened her eyes to see the twintailed girl sitting very still starting at the bottle of tea clutched between her slender fingers. "I… I know we need to talk… all of us. I think… I think we should wait until Luka-chin wakes up…" she lifted her green eyes to Haku's red with a pleading look. "Please? Just… just sit with me and… and try this tea?" She proffered the bottle.

Haku stood there for a moment, an odd sinking feeling in her tummy. They all had to talk… whatever happened tonight she knew now without a shadow of a doubt that someone was going to be hurt tonight. Maybe multiple someones. Miku could feel it too, they could both sense it. A silent shared understanding of the situation passed between them as they gazed at each other and slowly Haku lowered herself to the carpet. She reached out to take the tea, determined to enjoy the other girl's company as much as she could for the moment.

They talked of idle things while they had their snacks. Mostly Miku talked, bubbling on about this kind of tea or that brand of shrimp chips or the like. Haku responded when called for but mostly was content to simply bask in the moment with her friend. They had done this on any number of occasions these past months, with Luka too, just sitting and talking and laughing and gossiping. The evening wore on, the light outside the bedroom window faded all together, and eventually they decided to begin preparing for the late night. They gathered up the trash and threw it away, then stacked the leftovers neatly on Luka's dresser for the time being, then they went to get ready to get cleaned up, getting changes of clothes to relax in and heading to take their baths. They didn't talk while they soaped and rinsed off getting clean, and they didn't take a soak in the huge tub this time as they usually would have either, neither wanting to spend that much time away from Luka. But as they were drying and getting dressed Miku spoke up.

"I'm sorry for what I said earlier…" Their blushes from before had never entirely went away but now they renewed a little. "While we were…. changing Luka-chin... I… didn't mean to say that out loud…"

Haku drew her white night shirt down over her head to match the loose white shorts she was already wearing. "You… you really think… I'm… as pretty as…?" She couldn't finish but Miku nodded fervently.

"I've thought so since I first met you… so serene, so exotic and mysterious… I wasn't lying when I said it when we were shopping for yukatas before. it's been hard for me, actually, knowing you're both so… so gorgeous… you look so natural together, so perfectly made for the other as though you were a set, like you belong together, and I… I stick out in comparison… I know I'm not as pretty…" Miku was muttering as she pulled her loose black shorts up to meet the hem of her purple nightshirt.

Haku gasped at her. "What? That's nonsense! You're absolutely stunning, Miku-chan! I kept thinking that *I* wasn't as pretty as YOU! You're so vibrant and adorable and cute in every single way! And you have a history with her! How could I possibly compete with-" she cut off as a pained look on Miku's face made her realize she was saying too much and they fell into an awkward silence.

They bound their loose wet hair up in towels and pulled on their slippers on the way out of the bathroom and padded back to their rooms. Haku got her hairbrush, her iPhone and charger, then came back into Luka's room. Miku had the same things from her room. They looked around for a moment; there were only two other chairs, the simple low backed swiveling one that went to the makeup stand and a cushy armchair packed with frilly throw pillows in the corner.

Glancing at her friend Miku walked over to drag the makeup stool over by the big armchair and sat in it, swiveling around so her back was to it. Then she looked up to Haku and held up her hairbrush. "Haku-chan… would you… do my hair?" She unwound the towel on her head and her damp light blue hair fell in heavy waves of strands down her back.

Haku stepped forward and took Miku's hairbrush from her and sat on the edge of the arm chair, which really was every bit as cushy as it looked. Blue and purple swirled around the handle and brush head, it was a soft brush with stiff bristles rather than plastic tines. Miku leaned back slightly so Haku could reach easier and she reached delicately up to her friend's head with it and began to brush out the silky light blue strands.

"Your hair is so soft and beautiful, Miku-chan…" Haku breathed. She felt something stirring deep within herself, some sort of emotion she'd shared with Miku before that she couldn't identify at the time when they'd been in the relaxation room, but with events changing as they had recently it was slowly becoming more clear to her.

"Thank you." Miku replied, the tone in her voice suggesting the same. She paused, then added, "I'm not entirely sure why the urge struck me to be honest with you. I'm so careful with my hair, I don't usually let anyone else near it. The last time I let someone else brush it was my mom when I was a kid."

"I'm the same way…" Haku replied. She paused a moment with the hairbrush turned upward to let gravity drag some of the strands through the bristles. "Miku-chan…"

"Hm?" Miku's voice sounded like a wind chime, just as lovely to Haku as the rest of her. That feeling was burning inside her now and she wished she knew what it was. She had to say something…

"I…" Haku swallowed, why was it so hard to just find some words? "I think I… I mean I'm so glad… to have you in my life…" She couldn't see the look on her friend's face from the way they were sitting but Miku was suddenly very still. With a start Haku started the brush moving again. "I mean I just… I really like you and… I just… whatever happens between… between the three of us, I want you to know..." She trailed off. Why did caring so much have to hurt so bad too? If she lost Miku due to how things went… she honestly felt like she might...

Miku was silent for a long moment before she said quietly, "I like you too, Haku-chan…" Another pause then, "I… feel the same way… I'm glad actually, I was really afraid if you joined the Vocaloids you'd hold it against us having to move here away from your family."

Haku realized she'd never actually told Miku about her parents and her life before, it was usually so hard to talk about, but she had told Luka, and she realized she felt comfortable enough telling the pretty blue haired girl as well.

"My parents and I aren't close. They're prominent scientists and have never really been around. They saw that I was well cared for; I had maids and butlers and fancy private tutors my whole life, but I never saw them for more than a few days at a time a couple of times a year around holidays. Mostly they're out abroad on projects or shut away in private labs." It was still hard to talk about it, but she wanted to tell Miku. "I guess they feel like their money can make up for their lack of parental love because they've always given me everything I've ever wanted, but I never wanted their money, I wanted my parents, I wanted friends, I wanted a normal childhood." She swallowed hard and abruptly the brush was pulled out of her grip as Miku spun around in the swiveling makeup chair and flung her arms around her.

"Haku-chan, I'm so sorry." She whispered quietly in Haku's ear.

Haku hugged her back and squeezed her eyes shut, she had to whisper the last part. "Luka-chan saved me from that as much as she saved me from the souldrinker that day… and so did you. You two are the first two people I've ever… ever been close to… I can never make you understand what you two mean to me…" Abruptly she realized she had sobbed a little bit because Miku squeezed tighter around her shoulders.

It was a brief cry and after a minute Haku pushed away a bit, "I'm okay, Miku-chan. Turn back around, the brush is stuck in your hair."

Miku let out a little giggle and spun back around and Haku resumed brushing out her friend's hair. They were quiet for a little bit as she finished working Miku's silky locks, one hundred strokes just like she would have done for herself, and when Miku shook it loose with a shake of her head and said it was good she tied it into two loose ponytails at the back of her neck that ran down either side of her back rather than the sides of her head.

"If you trade me places you can do mine now… if you want." Haku offered, and Miku nodded. They traded spots and Haku let her silvery white hair loose from her towel as Miku had done. She handed her friend her pearly white hairbrush with similar bristles as Miku's and a moment later she felt them on her head. It was an intimate thing, at least to her and apparently to Miku as well, letting someone else brush your hair, and they were each as careful with the other's as they would have been with their own.

"Your hair is really silky, Haku-chan." Miku said.

"Thank you. I'm still getting used to the color."

Miku's hand paused for only a moment before the brush started moving again. "I never knew you before, I keep forgetting you went through a change."

"Yeah, I used to be dark haired with brown eyes."

"No!" Miku said incredulously. "No way."

Haku giggled. "I really did. Luka-chan saw me, ask her when she wakes up if you don't believe me."

"I believe you, it's just hard to imagine. You look so natural this way."

"Really?" She glanced at herself in the makeup mirror. "But it's not natural coloring at all right? I mean seriously? Red eyes?"

Miku gave a shrug as she worked the brush carefully. "It might not be natural for others, but it is for you. Even if you were different before, it just means you changed to what you should be. Just because things are one way for some people doesn't mean they are the same for everyone."

Haku nodded, then grabbed her iPhone. She found the picture of herself from before with her favorite stuffed animal and showed it over her shoulder.

Miku looked at it and made a face. "Wow, you look so different but still the same." She gave a nod of her head decisively. "The white definitely fits you better. Perfect for your serene mysterious countenance."

Haku wasn't sure if she was getting used to hearing it or was just happy to hear it from Miku but the compliment made her warm inside. Abruptly she switched topics, still having a hard time accepting such words even if they did come from Miku.

"Miku-chan, will you teach me to drive?"

"Eh? Why this request all of the sudden?" Miku wanted to know.

Haku gave a small self conscious shrug. "You and Luka-chin both can, I want to be able to. Besides, your Ferrari is so pretty."

Miku let out a long suffering sigh. "Well it won't be in the Ferrari, unless you can un-ground me from it. Daddy still hasn't reinstated my access."

Haku thought about that for a moment then a mischievous light sparkled in her red eyes. "If you can get me network access, I might be able to…"

The brush halted in Miku's hair and she blinked in surprise. "Really? I mean, all I have to do is either wait until my father feels my punishment is over or, if I want to bend my neck, I can go to him and apologized and tell him I've learned his lesson and he'll give it back." She lets out an annoyed sigh. "That's how it's always been. If I do something he feels warrants punishment, I can humble myself and admit I was wrong and he will relent, or I can accept whatever he stipulates by way of atonement in his eyes without humbling myself, but the way I was raised that's the same as saying I disagree with him, keeping my own pride."

Haku knew full well that this particular punishment had been because Miku had been ordered not to take her with on a field mission when she and Luka had been dispatched to the park. She had had a similar conversation with Director Hatsune, in which she had told him she regretted having to disobey but that she wasn't sorry she had done it.

"And do you? Disagree with him I mean?"

Miku made a cute little petulant face. "Of course I do! It turned out we needed you, and besides it was the first time you and Luka-chin-" She cut off abruptly as her face shifted from petulance to inner pain.

Haku rushed the conversation on before it could degrade again as it had before. "Well in that case, if you disagree, let me help? I would like to do something for you and Luka-chin, anything I can."

Miku was just finishing out the hundred brush strokes and she couldn't stop an excited grin. She handed Haku's brush back to her and jumped up. "I'll be right back!" Then she rushed out of Luka's room. While she was gone Haku pulled her silvery white hair back to cascade down behind her back and tied it with a simple thin black ribbon. She didn't bow it, she never did before bed, just let it trail so it wouldn't knot up during sleep. Then she ducked out of the room around the corner to her own room to retrieve her her flowery pink and white patterned thumb drive from the top of her dresser.

Miku wasn't gone long, rushing back in just as Haku came back in once more as well. She set a laptop down on the empty space on Luka's makeup stand and flipped it open. The screen came to life as she opened it up and she tapped a few keys. A network window opened to show shared files in the Vocaloid Cloud Drive. "Here you go. Don't tell anyone I let you!" She giggled.

Haku smiled up at her. "Of course not!" She plugged her flowery drive into a USB port and Miku made a face.

"Isn't that your broken flash drive?" She asked.

"It's not broken, look." She clicked the mouse a few times to get to the folder she wanted, and several files and an exe she'd written herself for code breaking was visible. "See?"

Miku blinked in confusion. "That's so weird, at the festival the other day I swear there no folders on it at all!"

"Maybe you missed them?" Haku asked dubiously.

"There was nothing to miss! I swear I opened the drive and there was just nothing there at all! Like it was brand new or recently wiped or something." Miku sounded insistent.

"Strange, I dunno." She replied, opening the main Vocaloid Network Admin Panel on the laptop. A password window popped up, gating access, and Haku started her exe running. The program began to scan, letters and numbers and symbols flashing by on it's window, but nothing else happened on the laptop as yet.

"Do you want me to log in?" Miku asked, seeing nothing happening on the laptop.

"No, if anything I do gets detected we don't want it traced to you." Haku replied.

While the program worked Haku opened a second window on the laptop and began setting up a dummy IP to mask her access. Once that was done and the iPhone finished the password populated in the Network Login and a green login verification flashed with admin rights.

Miku's eyes widened. "Wow, Haku-chan! That's amazing! You're really awesome!"

Haku giggled and tapped a button on the code breaking window to switch to a traffic monitoring mode so that she'd be able to see if anyone started spying on her access.

"Now I just have to find the right files." Haku told her.

"Who did you log in as?"

"No one. Every system has a default administrator access. Most people don't ever change that. It's actually a sloppy way to get in, but it's fastest and I can cover my tracks." Miku's blue eyes were wide and she watched with rapt attention. Haku pointed at the laptop screen as she sifted through the admin network. "Here, see this? Basic network security." She flipped folders. "And here's the folder with user accounts." Another folder. "Personnel files." And another. "Ah here we are, access permissions. Here's the program that manages who can get into what."

"So we just open it and change mine?" Miku seemed excited.

"No, that might be caught." Haku glanced at the traffic screen, nothing so far. "But programs like this run off of hidden files that act as protocols, on/off switches you might say. When an access request is made at a chip reader or other access gate, that device doesn't check the program itself, it checks these files. So we do this…" she trailed of as she began tracing file paths, and Miku let out a low whistle.

"You're so fast, Haku-chan!"

Haku giggled again. "Computers and electronics were a big thing for me growing up. I had more hours than I knew what to do with so I learned things." She found what she was looking for and opened the hidden file. "See this?"

Miku made a face. "It's just a page of numbers and letters."

"Well yes, but this is computer language, how software talks. All we do is find yours... " She pulled up Miku's personnel file from a previous widow, copied her network ID from it, Then searched the hidden file. "Here it is. And look here." She pointed and Miku read aloud.

"Vehicle access. SUV 1, true, SUV 2, true, SUV 3, true… there's the Ferrari! It says false."

"Right. These titles here are what we call comments, the computer program doesn't try to do anything with them, they just let us know what we're looking at. So we change the value."

"Now it says true!" Miku exclaimed.

"And then we can back up this file, hide it, and set it so that if anyone changes it the Network will restore it."

"Won't that mess with everyone's access?" Miku asked curiously.

Haku shook her head. "No this is just your file, everyone has their own."

"So that means I can never lose access again?!" Miku gasped in astonished excitement.

Haku smiled up at her. "That's right."

Miku threw her arms around Haku. "Oh Haku-chan, what a wonderful gift!" She leaned back with her hands on Haku's shoulders, blue eyes meeting red. "Thank you so much! You really are incredible."

They gazed into each other's eyes for a long moment, and suddenly that feeling from earlier was back. She gazed at Miku gazing at her as her cheeks began to heat again. From the flush in Miku's cheeks she felt it too. Were they moving closer? Or was the room shrinking? Their eyes slid partway shut, Miku's blue twintails slid forward over her shoulders to brush against Haku's arms. She was definitely closer now. Instinct was taking over, desire pushing all other thoughts out of their heads. The pain of the moment vanished, judgment was evaporating. Their heads tilted slightly, Miku leaned down further. Their lips brushed, so delicately so faintly it could barely have been called contact at all really. Their noses bumped and Haku could feel the other girl's breath on her upper lip.

Suddenly Luka stirred in her bed and the moment ended like a burst bubble. They turned to see Luka's eyes flutter open looking up toward the ceiling. "Oh…" she got out.

"Luka-chin!" Miku let go of Haku and dove for the pink haired beauty, landing on the bed with a squeal of delight and wrapping her arms around the idol.

Haku couldn't breathe. What had almost just happened? But Luka was awake! That was what mattered. She quickly logged out of the Vocaloid Network and disconnected her thumb drive from the laptop. Then she looked at the pair on the bed. Miku had ahold of Luka by the shoulders and Luka had her hands on Miku's sides.

"We were so worried, we didn't want to leave you alone so we bathed and stayed in here with you!" Miku told the idol excitedly, her bubbliness in full effect.

Luka smiled at her. "Thank you, but you didn't have to. I was just tired-" her jaw cracked with a beautiful yawn on the last word that she tried to hide behind a hand. "Still am, but I'm feeling better. I don't know what that Juon Kiku did to me but it was certainly draining. How long was I asleep? What time is it?"

"Nearly midnight! You were asleep the entire afternoon! We wanted to be here when you woke up!" Miku gushed.

Watching the two of them like that it struck Haku in that moment like a blow to the stomach. Her heart ached, her insides all seemed to squeeze together at one. It was hard to breathe, she felt dizzy. There was a bad feeling starting in the pit of her stomach like the one earlier, a sinking feeling pulling at her tummy as though she were falling into a void. "I… I should… you need rest, Luka-chIn… I should… go…"

Luka blinked and shook her head and patted the bed's edge, "No I'm okay for a little bit, and I think we still need to talk. This bothered me so much I had dreams about it and we need to clear the air. Please Haku-chin?" She added the last because the snowy haired girl suddenly looked like she wanted to bolt.

Haku swallowed hard then finally gave a weak nod and sat on the edge of the bed as Miku shuffled over to Luka's other side to make room. This was it, she thought, someone was going to end this night hurt. Somewhere deep within herself she thought for sure it would be her. The pink haired beauty wrapped an arm around Haku's shoulders and she thought she might start crying on the spot. This was going to be so hard, she thought. But what choice did she have? The bad feeling got worse, she was going to be consumed by this, she just knew it. The intuition was that strong.

Luka looked at Miku. "Miku-chan, Haku-chin told me about… about how you've been crying…" it wasn't an easy thing to talk about, and Miku colored and looked away. She didn't seem like she could get anything out right that moment, so Luka looked to Haku. "I suppose I owe you an explanation, Haku-chin… I did promise." She sighed and leaned back against her pillows, propped upright by them and her bed's headboard. Haku started to shake her head but Luka's jaw set stubbornly and she pushed on. "No, I do. If we… I mean if things… are to advance between us…" She blushed faintly herself at that but pushed on. Haku couldn't help but admire the idol's conviction. She wished she was half as strong of will. No, she had to be, she had to let them have what they wanted. "Two years ago I lost my parents to a souldrinker. I told you about that…" Her eyes moistened at the memory but she didn't let the tears come. "What I didn't mention was that Miku-chan… helped me. The Vocaloids were still relatively new at the time and there were only a few of us, and I came back here, in this very room, and Miku-chan held me while I cried…" Her voice cracked but she still refused to let the tears fall. Miku still couldn't look up at them, picking at an imaginary spot on the soft blanket. "The next day she helped me track the guy that got them. We had grown close here for months before that, training together, eating together, sharing everything. When we finally got him, I… I couldn't… I was so overwhelmed I… I almost let him… get me too… it was stupid, I was sloppy… but Miku-chan was there, and she… saved me. She got him for me."

Haku couldn't look at the idol anymore, her own head turning down like Miku's was. It was the same story all over again. God she was such a fool to let herself fall so hard! Were her feelings real? Or was it just hero worship? How could she have been so blind to what these two meant to each other? Or had she perhaps simply not really wanted to see? Maybe she had wanted to be blind…

Luka swallowed and continued. "We got together after that. The support we had built over the months, the help she had been to me, our bond as Resonators, everything sort of just seemed to add up to it. It didn't matter that we were both girls, it didn't matter that our lives were dangerous, it didn't matter that we were both idols. None of it matter and we… well… I mean to say…"

"You were a couple…" Haku whispered involuntarily, barely audible over the hammering of her heart in her ears.

Luka nodded. "We were… for awhile…"

"What changed?" Haku couldn't stop herself asking in a whisper. She wanted to run, to flee, to get away from this. Every fiber of her being screamed at her to just run away. She thought her chest was going to explode with how much this hurt.

"I turned eighteen." Luka said, almost as quietly. "Miku-chan is two years younger than I am, and that would have been… legally compromising…"

Haku couldn't stop a sob from escaping her lips, and Miku flinched as though she'd been struck. "Then you didn't… break up… really…"

There was a long silent pause, the quiet stretching out between the three so long and awkwardly it seemed to Haku as though a monster were growing up in the room right there on the bed. But finally Luka went on. "We agreed to stay close friends until Miku was eighteen, and then we… we'd see how we still felt about each other then… we've never been… been far from the other since… and… and then…"

"Then I came along and ruined everything…" Haku murmured, and Miku flinched again.

"Not ruined!" Luka said, her crystal voice rising a little. "Complicated, maybe, but… Haku-chin, I wasn't lying before when I told you how much you mean to me. Since Miku and I were forced to drift apart a little you have been the only other person I've grown close to besides her! It was fast and it was hot and it was intense and I wouldn't trade it for the world!"

"No." Haku said but Luka wasn't done.

"You know I was worried about pushing you away, I need you, Haku-chin! You're like a balm on an old wound to me! More than that! My first thoughts when I wake up are of you! Or sometimes Miku! She and I have built something over the course of years, and you mean just as much, don't you see?"

"No!" Haku almost shrieked, her silvery voice ringing like a thunder clap in the room, her hands tightening on the blanket so hard the fabric stretched. Both of the other two blanched at the sound. She looked up, and tears were streaming silently down her face. She knew what she had to do now, she knew to her core, but it was so hard, oh so hard. "You can't do that!"

Luka blinked in surprise, "I can't-?"

Haku cut her off. "You two n-never broke up!" She pointed at the pretty blue haired girl and Miku flinched yet again. "Miku-chan has been crying for you! No wonder she's been h-hurting! You promised to see how you felt when she turned eighteen and then s-suddenly I come along!" She was sobbing so hard it was hard to talk and she had to force the words out between the tears. "M-Miku-chan, m-my god, how d-do you n-not h-hate me?!"

"T-there was never a chance, H-Haku-chin! She j-just had her birthday…" Luka's lip trembled.

Miku shook her head violently, "N-no! Haku-chan, I don't! I j-just want you b-both to be happy!" She was crying too now, but that only served to answer Haku's question.

"You see? L-Luka-chan, sh-she cares for you s-so much she'd l-let you go! A-and I…! I…!" Haku got up off the bed suddenly. Luka and Miku both made a grab for her with little wails, they were all crying now, but Haku was too quick. "I c-can't! You two m-mean the w-world to me! I've t-told you both that! I've never b-been so close to anyone before you t-two!" She wiped at her face with the palms of her hands but it didn't do any good. She could barely see through the tears. "You n-never b-broke up. You h-have t-to fulfil your p-promise to each other! I… I have to… to step aside… t-t-t-to l-l-l-let you!"

"B-but that's n-not fair to you, Haku-chan!" Miku wailed.

Luka nodded her agreement, her own tears falling freely like the others. "Haku-chin, d-don't do this! P-please!"

"It's n-not going t-to be f-fair to one of us either way…" Haku backed toward the door. "P-p-please, it h-has to b-be this way! You h-have to s-sort yourselves out f-first!" And with that she threw the door to the room open and ducked out. She heard them both yell her name, heard scrambling on the bed, but her room was right by theirs and she was already inside before they reached the hall. She slammed her door shut and locked it before pitching herself onto her bed and letting the flood gates open, her tears full on wails now, great heart wrenching soul crushing wails so terrible she thought she might just die on the spot.

The other two were out in the hall, and she could hear them sobbing even as they jiggled the handle and hammered on the door calling her name out and asking her to let them in. She wouldn't do it, they had to fix this amongst themselves. She had to be the one to step aside, this was the right thing to do… but gods did it hurt… it hurt so bad. She wouldn't move from the bed, she just cried into her pillow. If she could hear them then they could definitely hear her anguish through the door as well. She cried and cried and cried until she finally had nothing left. There was no telling how long it went on for but the last dim thought as sweet merciful unconsciousness finally took her was that they had finally gone back to Luka's room after she'd gone silent. Or at least they had stopped banging on her door.

… … … … …

"She got so quiet…" Miku sniffled, wiping at one of her green eyes with the back of one hand, her face puffy and red from crying.

"Maybe she fell asleep…" Luka guessed, her own face as tear streaked as the other girl's. She didn't think any of them had handled the situation very well tonight, her most of all.

"At least she isn't crying anymore…" Miku muttered, still rubbing at her eyes. "Did you hear how anguished she sounded?" She choked up at the thought.

"I hurt her…" Luka whispered, choking back a sob. "It's my fault. I messed up big time." She stared at Haku's bedroom door as though she could see the snowy white haired beauty through it, laying on her bed face buried in her pillow.

Miku shook her head. "No, Luka-chin, don't think like that… it's not anyone's fault, it's just… complicated…" She rubbed at her eye some more.

Luka stared at the pretty light blue haired girl and then rubbed at her own blue eyes, pushing her long flowing pink hair back over her shoulder. It was unbound, she had been in bed before this. She still felt drained, exhausted from her encounter with Juon Kiku. She reached out a hand and took Miku's and led her back into her own room next to Haku's, shutting the door behind them but not locking it. She didn't think Haku was likely to come back, but… well just incase…

She lead Miku over to her bed and they both sat on the edge of it. Luka reached to her nightstand and picked up a box of tissues and held them out. Miku smiled weakly but gratefully and took several, glancing at herself in the mirror on Luka's makeup stand and wiping at her eyes. "Gods I'm a mess…" She muttered.

Luka looked up at her and an impulse struck her. She wasn't sure why or where it came from, but Vocaloids were creatures of instinct and emotion and she had long since learned to trust those impulses, as had Miku. She reached a hand up to brush away a lingering tear from the blue haired girl's cheek. "Not a mess…" she whispered. "Beautiful."

Miku blushed but didn't look away. She reached a hand up to Luka's cheek in return, just to rest it there lightly. She used just as quiet a tone. "Luka-chin… I turned eighteen last week…"

"I know…" Luka replied.

"Haku-chan was right about one thing; we never did… actually break up…" The emotional words were hard to say but she managed them, looking up at the slightly older woman. "We just… sort of put things on hold, right? To see how we'd feel… when there would be no legal consequences…"

"Yes…" Luka breathed.

Miku's head moved a little closer unconsciously. "So… how do we feel…? We never got a chance to talk before… before…"

Luka swallowed hard. "Before I ruined it chasing Haku-chin…" She answered quietly.

Miku shook her head again. "Let's not dwell on that right now…?" She asked hesitantly. "Please, just… just tell me… do you still… feel something… for me…?"

Luka's heart was breaking, the look on Miku's face was so earnest. She had to answer truthfully. Gods she was awful, a terrible person for leading them both on. Why were they fighting over her? They should both hate her... "Yes, Miku-chin…" She ran her thumb over Miku's cheek again. "I do…"

Miku swallowed hard as well. "But…" she ventured hesitantly.

"But…" Luka closed her blue eyes. "But… I feel something… for Haku-chin too…" She dropped her hands down in front of her head and buried her face in them. "God, Miku-chin, I'm horrible. I'm worse than horrible. I'm… I'm…" She couldn't think of something bad enough to call herself, but then her eyes popped open over her fingertips as she felt the other girl's arms going around her shoulders in a hug.

"Not awful…" Miku breathed. "Beautiful."

"But…" Luka tried to object, fighting tears once more. "But this is so unfair to you both… I'm so sorry for how I've treated you..."

Miku laughed bitterly. "Luka-chin," The more intimate address came easily, naturally. "This isn't fair to all of us. We all feel like we're on the verge of losing the other two."

Luka nodded sadly, then realized what the other girl had said. "We all…" She looked up and tilted her head. "Then you feel… for Haku-chin…?"

Miku sighed and nodded. "We've spent a lot of time together these past months, laughing, getting to know each other, but more than that too. When I felt like I was losing you she was there. She was only ever concerned for our sakes, not her own. It hurt her, I know it did, but she only ever acted in our best interests, not her own. She's saved both of our lives despite being half trained. She's brave and kind and thoughtful all at once. She's a very rare person, and I… I've had dreams of her… of you both…" Her cheeks glowed like they had caught fire and Luka understood. She had had dreams like that too… "I can't help it… I'm drawn to both of you… like a magnet…"

"Like a magnet…" She agreed, enjoying the symbolism of the thought. "What do we do?" Luka asked uncertainly, which was a whole new territory for her. She was older than the other two by a couple of years, and naturally a decisive person. She was used to knowing what she wanted and acting. To be in this situation was extremely disconcerting for her.

But Miku had no answer. She shrugged and they just sat there hugging for a time. "Whatever we decide do," She said finally, "We can't do it until we make it up to Haku-chin. She's been so patient with us, and since we both… care for her…" the blush deepened but she pressed on, "She wants us to figure us out, but we need to consider her too I think."

Luka nodded, that seemed only right. They stared at each other for a long few moments and abruptly Luka's eyes were drooping. She sagged backward so she could lean against her pillow and headboard. "I'm still so drained…" she muttered.

Miku nodded and patted her shoulder, then pulled the blanket up for Luka. "You should get some more sleep, Luka-chin. We all should rest, and think about this fresh tomorrow." She stood as if to go, but Luka caught her hand.

"Will you…" Luka flushed furiously but they were both so emotionally vulnerable. "Will you please… stay with me? The bed is big enough… just to sleep I mean…"

Miku's blush hadn't ever gone away but now it came back with a vengeance, but she gave a small understanding smile and a nod. "Alright, just to sleep." She agreed, climbing in beside the idol. "It is after midnight after all…" They curled up, and were both asleep in moments.


	12. Vocaloid Academy Chapter 12

The next week went by like a blur for Haku, though maybe it was because she was in a daze. She began getting up early just to avoid the two beautiful girls her bedroom shared a hallway with. She didn't think she could stand to confront them in her current state so she thought the best way was to always be somewhere else. She'd pass them on their way into the bathroom while she was on her way out, having gotten up early enough to rush her bath without them. She hated not being able to take her time but it was the price she had to pay. They would try to stop her wanting to talk, but she would mutter an apology saying she had somewhere to be and duck her head and hurry off. They would try to corner her at lunch time but she would say she wasn't hungry and had work to do, then she'd have to sneak out of the compound to the corner store later for a snack. They would come knocking at her door at dinner time, but she had it locked and wound tell them her training that day had been especially tiring and she wanted to go to bed early.

The training being hard was true at least. Working at her practices was the only way she had found to truly distract herself from her misery. She spent her mornings with Hibiki Mokoto working hard at her dancing lessons. The first day she had walked to the nearby strip mall Luka had first taken her to and bought a new set of workout clothes. She didn't need the change of outfit really but it had provided an excuse to be out that afternoon. It was a simple white sports top with built in support and a pair of stretch shorts with some tennis shoes. She spent hours each morning until lunch time in the dance studio, and if Hibiki-sensei was busy she would practice in a corner by herself. On the third day they were engrossed in a lesson and her mind kept wandering. She couldn't focus, thinking about Luka and Miku, her heart feeling like it was tearing in half. The heartache was unbearable at times so incredible was the pain and she couldn't focus, like a yawning black abyss of misery was going to swallow her up at any moment.

"Yowane-san!" Mokoto said with a snap.

"Ha?" She jumped with a start.

Mokoto sighed and then sat cross legged on the spongy floor mats. "You've been distracted for days, but this is as bad as I've seen you. Sit, talk with me."

She sat hesitantly not sure how much she should say, but Mokoto was direct and to the point. "Did something happen with Megurine-san? Or perhaps Hatsune-san?"

Haku's jaw dropped open. "How did you-"

Mokoto waved the question off, the graceful indefinable tenor voice holding a hint of amusement but mostly seriousness. "I have had my share of experience in such things, Yowane-san. I can tell."

Haku's face fell. "Is it so obvious?"

Mokoto laughed softly. "To me it is."

"What I can't understand…" Haku began slowly at her instructor's urging, then paused. If Hibiki-sensei already knew somehow then it couldn't hurt to get some advice, so she went on. "Is why I feel like I've lost two… interests… instead of just one…" She winced at herself and shook her head. "Isn't that… I don't know, dirty somehow?"

"Oh my no, I hope not!" Mokoto laughed. "Or else someone is going to have to explain things to my significant others!" It was said as a joke but Haku's jaw dropped.

"You have multiple… Partners?!" She couldn't help sounding incredulous but Mokoto just grinned.

"Yowane-san, have you ever heard the saying 'The heart wants what it wants?'" She shook her head. "Oh. How about 'Love conquerors all?'"

Haku narrowed her red eyes. "Maybe in movies…" she ventured.

"There's a reason for that, why so many romance movies focus on such themes. Some may think it dirty, but others don't. What is okay or normal for some isn't necessarily the same for others." Haku blinked as Mokoto unknowingly repeated something Miku had said. "Love is a delicate and tricky thing, and each time it appears for someone it's like a snowflake; special and unique and different than any other. If you try to catch it too strenuously, it melts away, but if you do nothing, it drifts on by to land somewhere else."

"Then what do I do?" Haku asked, more curious now than anything.

Mokoto grinned again. "We are Vocaloid's, Yowane-san, creatures of instinct and emotion. Listen to your feelings; they more than anything else will guide you."

"You think my heart will tell me what I want?" She couldn't help but feel a little put out. She was hoping for something more concrete than that.

"I think…" Mokoto said slowly, "That it already has. You just need to listen to it." They stared at each other for a long moment before Mokoto sighed, stretched, and stood. "In the meantime, emotional release is best. You have been training extremely well and I'm impressed at your progress so far. Let's start at the top, and put your feelings into it. That's what we do. Good or bad, let the emotion flow."

She had to avoid Luka avid Miku for singing practice as well. They both wanted to talk to her for sure, but they both also genuinely wanted to help her training as a Vocaloid, of that much there could be no doubts. She was grateful but she put them off there as well. Some days she was able to seek out Gumi and Teto and the three of them practiced together as they had done many times before now, all three benefiting from the harmonization. Other days they couldn't be found for some odd reason, but she met another Vocaloid the afternoon of the second day that week while looking for them.

"Pleased to meet you, Yowane-san." The tall boy said with a bow. "I have heard all about your impressive debut here at our compound. My name is Camui Gackpo, A rank Vocaloid at your service." He wore his long purple hair loose over a white outfit that somehow seemed like a traditional style in a modern cut. The combination wasn't unpleasant but she couldn't place it.

Haku couldn't tell if he was being melodramatic or not. She bowed her head anyway, her silver bow with black edges holding her snowy white hair back bobbing gently over her grey silk blouse and black designer jeans. Her favorite all black one had never quite recovered from the soaking it had received in the rain. "Pleased to meet you as well, Camui-san. I was looking for Kasane-san or Megpoid-san for singing practice. Have you seen them?"

Gackpo put a finger to his lips in a considering way. "Hmmmm. No I don't believe I have." He said apologetically. "I'm sorry but I cannot help you there. Perhaps I could be of assistance to your training this afternoon in their stead?"

"Ha?" Haku was surprised. She'd never met this boy but he was offering to help. "Oh but, I don't want to keep you from whatever you're doing."

He laughed, a rich ringing sound. "Concern for me despite your own need, how touching." He smiled warmly and bowed for her again. "Fear not fair maiden, my schedule is open this day, and it would be my honor, nay, my delight to have a hand in helping shape you toward your great potential as an S plus rank Vocaloid."

His style of speech was grand and Haku found it mildly off putting, but she wrapped herself in her outwardly calm serenity and smiled. "Thank you, that's very kind of you Camui-san." She gave a little bow not wanting to compete with his grandness and he turned and gestured in a direction that would take them into the North Wing.

"Shall we?"

She glanced the opposite way, confused. "Oh but, Megpoid-san and Kasane-san and I always practice in the yard."

Gackpo laughed and directed her northward and she followed him as he started off. "The courtyard is a fine place to sing." He agreed, "But not for training. When you train at dancing, do you not have mirrors on the walls to see what your body is doing? When a painter paints, do they not step back occasionally to admire and scrutinize their work? Does a sculptor not circle his creation to view every angle of his piece to pick out the flaws?"

Haku was still trying to acclimate to his grandiose speech but she saw what he was getting at. "Yes, I suppose they do."

He threw an arm up in a wide sweeping gesture as though to indicate the entire compound. "We Vocaloids are no less artists. We train and push ourselves and in due diligence we achieve mastery over ourselves and our art. Therefore, we too must step back to critique ourselves as we hone our skills, for it is not a public eye we fear finding our flaws but a dangerous enemy who wants only to capitalize on our failures."

Mastery of their art… Haku liked that. It put things into perspective for her to think of it in that way rather than simply training to do a thing. Luka and Miku were like that, even if they didn't realize it. They were idols, the art was everything. Suddenly her thoughts on the matter coalesced in a moment of clarity, and she realized how she wanted to contribute to the Vocaloids, an idea she had had the other day but was only now taking full form in her mind. She would have to talk to Luka… but that was for later. For right now something Gackpo had said earlier popped back into her mind and she looked up at him as they walked.

"You said earlier something about S plus? What does that mean?"

Gackpo smiled and nodded. "A Vocaloid's potential is a measurable device to indicate how strong they can actually become. We have medical instruments and testing facilities for such things as you have seen." At her nod to show she was following him he continued. "What is less tangible is the idea of surpassing one's own potential limits, to push yourself beyond what you had previously thought possible. This is what I call a plus rank. I have reached my potential at one hundred thirty nine times that of normal human sonic perception ranges. I am as high an A rank as is possible to achieve. Yet if I were able to push myself beyond, to reach one hundred forty times, would I then not be more than my potential had previously dictated? An A plus rank?"

Haku thought it over for a moment then narrowed her red eyes curiously. "Wouldn't you just be an S rank then?"

He shook his head. "I do not know. It is a theory which I am pursuing, I will know what to call it when the time is right."

Haku blinked at that. "Then no one has ever surpassed themselves before?"

Gackpo laughed softly, "As I said, it is only a theory so far. Not everyone even reaches their potential. I have, a few others. We are still growing as an organization, Yowane-san. There is as much guesswork and theorycraft involved as legitimate science. Learn to think outside of traditional lines of reasoning and the possibilities which will open to your mind will be as numerous as the stars in the night sky!"

As Gackpo led them through a doorway into a high ceilinged room she decided he was not mocking or melodramatic, he was just eccentric and idealistic. She liked that, and it put her at ease. The room had a few high stools in it with short backs to sit upright in and a few more traditional chairs against the walls, but not much else. The carpet was lush, the lighting was low and soft, and she noticed the ceiling was slightly curved. She glanced at Gackpo who was smiling as he watched her take it all in, and she let out an experimental note.

"Huuuuuuuuu." The walls and ceilings seemed to reverberate with the note, bouncing it between them almost as if playing with it before it faded away.

Gackpo's smile widened. "I see you are every bit as perceptive as I have heard, Yowane-san. Yes, this chamber is acoustically favorable and in that way we are able to do as the sculptors do, to hear and critique and perfect our art, to sculpt our vocal cords as a master carpenter perfects his angles. We have several rooms such as this for practicing." He added at the end as he slid a placard on the door to change it from saying 'unoccupied' to 'occupied' before closing the door. "Now Yowane-san. We shall start at the beginning. Harmonize with me."

So for the rest of that week whenever she went in search of a singing partner in Gackpo, Gumi, or Teto after lunch and couldn't find one she would find another, and they would go to the practice room. Twice she found all three and those had been fantastic practices, stretching out well past dinner time as they were all so thoroughly engrossed in it.

And so her week went, dancing all morning, singing all afternoon, sneaking meals in when she could… and softly crying herself to sleep at night. Alone in her room in the dark with nothing to occupy her mind she could not keep her thoughts away from Luka and Miku. It didn't help that they came knocking every evening without fail. She never opened the door though, calling through it that she was too tired. She wanted to though, so very badly she wanted to. She was desperate for a reprieve from the pain. Yet in the dark of night the sorrow and the loneliness krept in on her, threatening to swallow her up completely like a black fog rolling in around her, consuming her. The light of her iPhone screen gave her something to focus on and she would lay awake for hours watching videos online of Luka and Miku's old concerts, younger versions of the pretty idol's dancing along to Haku's tears, until she finally drifted off with her phone in hand. The only thing that ever helped was unconsciousness, and even that not very much as her dreams were filled with the two beauties.

… … … … …

"She's avoiding us." Miku muttered sullenly as she picked at her breakfast, a muffin and a banana, one morning late in the week as they sat in the cafeteria. She had barely eaten anything the past few days, but that still wasn't as bad as Luka, who had skipped entire meals with her worry. Miku felt bad for the idol but did her best to get her to have snacks occasionally. Luka still felt like this entire situation were her fault and worried endlessly over Haku's behavior.

"Of course she is…" Luka muttered not even looking at her sweet bean bun, her chin resting on one hand with the elbow on the table. It had long since grown cold from neglect. "She's right to distance herself from me after what I did."

Miku sighed and shoved her own plate away. She had as little clue of what to do about the situation as Luka, but the pink haired beauty really needed to stop punishing herself. "Luka-chin, please. You have to stop thinking like that, it's not your fault."

"Why?" Luka's blue eyes met Miku's own and they stared at each other. "Tell me how it's not."

"It was an accident," Miku muttered. She wished she could come up with a more definite argument, but she wasn't sure how. From the look on Luka's face she knew it too.

"That doesn't make it any less of a problem." She muttered back.

"I didn't say it wasn't a problem, I said it wasn't your fault. Haku-chin only wants us to be happy and we're not."

Luka's hand slapped the table as she let it fall from beneath her chin. "How can we be happy without her?!" Miku jumped at the sound and Luka winced. "I'm sorry, Miku-chin…"

Suddenly Miku had had enough. She couldn't explain it, just an emotion boiling over inside her. She stood up, stepped over beside Luka, and grabbed the idol by her cheeks with the palms of her hands, jerking her head up so she could stare down at her with an intense look in her eyes. "Luka-chin!" The bubbliness in her voice hadn't been present all week, but now the steel beneath the silk that was her resolve beneath her pretty exterior came out, her tone stern and commanding. "Enough! Okay?! We can't sit around feeling sorry for ourselves in this! We have to do something!"

The fact that Miku was including herself with the words even though she hadn't been the one blaming herself at all somehow combined with her iron commanding tone and made Luka's eyes go wide. Her jaw worked soundlessly for a few moments before her crystal voice came forth finally. "But… but what do we do?"

Miku sighed. "I don't know yet, but sitting around dwelling on blame and self deprecation doesn't help, it distracts. Stop it!"

Luka swallowed and nodded against the hands that held her face, and the silk shrouded back over Miku's attitude. She slid down to plop onto Luka's lap and wrapped her arms around the pink haired beauty. "It will be okay. Somehow, Luka-chin, it will be, I'm sure of it."

Luka sat frozen for a moment or two. They were in a public setting in a way even if there was no one else around in the cafeteria at the moment, but after a brief hesitation she let her arms circle Miku's waist and hugged back. They stayed that way for several moments before Miku withdrew one arm to lean over the table and reached for the muffin she had been picking at, pulling a piece of it off and bringing her hand up to pop it into Luka's mouth before she could object. The idol blinked in surprise but Miku left her finger there over her lips and after a moment Luka started chewing, and Miku couldn't help giggling at her. "See? Everything will be okay, somehow."

… … … … ...

Haku stared at the door to Luka's bedroom. She knew they were in there, she had seen them go in from down the hall some time before as she had been coming this way. Her day had been leading up to this, but that didn't make it any easier to face. She had reached up to knock a couple of times then dropped her hand back down. Her stomach felt like an entire swarm of butterflies had moved in and her chest was so tight she thought she might be sick. She needlessly double checked that her silver bow with black edges was still in place in her white hair behind her head.

When Friday morning dawned and Haku had found Hibiki-sensei conspicuously absent from the dance studio with a note on the door that read "Out for the day, apologies for the inconvenience. -Hibiki Mokoto" she had been disappointed but hoped everything was okay. She had gone back to her room to change back out of her workout clothes. After a moment's hesitation she'd put on the black silk blouse with a silver rose bud on the left side and a black skirt with a pattern of silver rose vines climbing the hem and up the sides that Miku had given her. The black leg warmers she'd added weren't part of the original outfit but the weather was getting colder every day and they matched well enough. It made her both feel warm but pained at the same time, but she supposed if she were to see the two today about her idea she should offer some sign to help ease tensions, at least a bit. Before that though she'd had to go find someone.

The Director of Finances for the Vocaloids was a very business like woman who would not have stood out in any crowd. She wore a sensible skirt suit and had her dark hair in a bun. Her door was open but Haku had knocked tentatively on the doorframe anyway, and had spent the better part of an hour talking to Hijime Keiko.

"It's a good idea overall, Yowane-san." She had said approvingly. "A few details to workout still, but you're on the right track. I approve, but you're right in that you will need to speak with Megurine-san about it."

So here she was outside of Luka's door, standing in the hallway just staring at it. How long had it been since she'd walked up? Five minutes? Ten? She didn't know. She was tempted to just go back to her room and deal with this later. She'd been watching more of the two idol's videos and had found something odd. Miku had said at one point that her retirement hadn't been that long ago, perhaps a few months back, maybe as many as six months, after whatever had happened with her old manager, but the most recent videos of her concerts were over a year old. It was an oddity Haku wanted to look into. She supposed her friend could have been misremembering, but if it was so recent she didn't think so. Either way it was a mystery she wanted to investigate… She sighed, then took a deep breath, swallowed hard, and knocked.

"Come in." Luka's crystal voice came floating through the door, and Haku hesitated a moment before forcing herself to reach down and turn the knob. The moment she let herself in the other two perked up, sitting up straighter on the edge of Luka's bed. "Haku-chin!"

Haku closed the door behind herself carefully and leaned against it where she was. They didn't move from the bed's edge, but they looked poised on the verge of leaping up as though they thought she might bolt again. If she was being honest with herself the urge was there to do so. Instead she opened her mouth to speak. "Can I… can I talk to you both about something?"

"Of course you can!" Miku's voice was a wind chime in Haku's mind and it helped ease her a little bit.

Luka gestured to the overstuffed chair in the corner, but Haku moved over to perch on the makeup stand's stool, drawing it over to face them more directly without getting too close, just out of arm's reach, and made herself sit. Neither failed to notice her outfit. They were dressed as beautifully as always Haku saw, Miku in a simple white one piece dress worked all over with blue and grey ribbons and flowers, and Luka was wearing a designer pair of black fashion jeans and a dark red sleeveless shirt with her knee high stiletto boots that laced up the sides. She must have been out hunting this morning, it was the sort of thing she wore while tracking souldrinkers, the kind if outfit that made Haku think of her as the warrior Luka rather than the idol.

Haku took a deep breath and decided to start the conversation off on the correct note. "I'm not here to talk about… about us." She said, only stuttering a little bit. Green and blue eyes both blinked in surprise and Haku hurried on. "Not that I don't want to, I'm just… I'm not ready to…" Their faces flushed in embarrassment and emotional pain, but they gave nearly identical nods, pink and light blue pony tails bobbing and swaying slightly.

"We'll be here when you're ready to, Haku-chin…" Miku muttered quietly in a tone that was reassuring despite her obvious impatience and inner pain..

"You can always come talk to us." Luka added, unable to keep a note of sadness out of her crystal voice.

"I had an idea the other day about my presence here with the Vocaloids, about how everyone contributes somehow." Haku went on, grateful they hadn't pressed the issue right then. They nodded, looking up a little more directly at her. "Something Miku said the other day started me thinking about being an idol." Miku winced slightly at the lack of familiar address but she didn't say anything. "The other week when we were talking with Teto and Gumi, you said you wished that you'd had Luka's manager back when you were an idol." Luka flinched too. "About how you wanted to have more freedom in your performance, but that you missed it otherwise." She got a nod of agreement and kept going, turning to look at Luka. "So I thought maybe if we talked to your manager, we could get her signed on with you. That seemed like such a simple thought at the time I didn't see why you hadn't done it already, so I thought I'd bring it up at a later time…" She trailed off, not adding that that time hadn't ever come up.

They both blinked in surprise and looked at each other. "You never mentioned this to me, Miku-chin." Luka said. "You know I would talk to Hojoto-san for you."

Miku pondered. "It had never occurred to me, honestly. I'm not unhappy focusing on the Vocaloids. But I do miss it…"

"And then I was thinking about the first day I met you." Haku went on to Luka, and their heads turned back toward her. "About you being an idol, and how it seemed a natural sort of profession for a Vocaloid, since we train so strenuously in dance and voice anyway."

Luka nodded at that. "Do you want to be an idol, Haku-chin? Is that what you're saying?"

"No!" Haku said quickly, but then she winced at herself and added, "Well yes. Kind of. I mean, not just for myself, I'd help you two in it for sure, but then Camui-san said something earlier today that-"

Miku couldn't stop a giggle erupting from her and she waved her hand in an apologetic gesture, "I'm sorry, Haku-chin, I don't mean to interrupt just, you just remember all these things so clearly! It's pretty amazing."

Haku flushed a little at the compliment, and Luka was smiling fondly at her. She had to clear her throat before going on. "Camui-san said Vocaloids are no less artists than a painter or sculptor. That we train and push ourselves and in time we achieve mastery over ourselves and our art."

Luka rolled her eyes. "That certainly sounds like him."

"So with all of these things in mind, it led me to the idea that if your talent manager were amenable to the idea, she could manage all of us." Haku said by way of revealing her thought.

"All three of us?" Miku asked curiously.

Haku shook her head. "No. ALL of us. The Vocaloids in general, any of us who want to be idols. If we are the embodiment of our form of art, and being an idol is so natural a career choice for us, and if all Vocaloids contribute to our private cause in some way, why not open it up to any of us who want to be idols? I know Gumi and Teto would jump at the chance, and finding a good manager is so hard. It would be a step up career wise for your manager, representing a whole group instead of individuals, right? We could form our own group out of it, and any of us who wanted to could participate, and then all of us who do would be contributing through it. It covers so many bases all at once."

They gaped at her, that was all there was to it. Their jaws literally dropped open and they stared at her incredulously. "Haku-chin…" Luka breathed, but couldn't get anything else out, but Miku spoke what they were both thinking.

"You're absolutely brilliant, Haku-chin! Amazing! You see things from so many angles! Wow!"

Luka was shaking her head looking absolutely blown away. "Every time I think I have you figured out Haku-chin you do something to shock or surprise me." She looked up with a radiant smile, and Haku felt her heart melt. "You're just amazing, just like Miku-chin says. That's all there is to it."

Haku flushed from all the compliments, still having a hard time accepting them. "I'm sure either of you could have come up with it if you'd thought on it. But does that mean you think it's a good idea?"

"I think it's a fantastic idea!" Miku positively bubbled.

"I'm sure Hojoto-san would be all for it. You're right, it would mean a significant step up for her, and she is a great manager. I got super lucky when I found her." Luka put in. "When do you want to meet with her?"

Haku blinked in surprise. "What, me? No, I just had the thought, I'm sure you could present it to her."

Miku giggled and Luka smirked. "No, none of that Haku-chin. It was your idea, you should be the one to get credit for it."

Haku gave a small shrug. "Well… whenever is convenient for everyone is fine with me I suppose…" She allowed, then blinked in surprise when Luka pulled her cellphone out of her pocket and tapped the screen a few times, then put it to her ear with a smile at Haku.

She waited for the answer at the other end then spoke, "Hi, Hojoto-san, it's Megurine Luka. Uh huh. Are you free for a lunch meeting? Really? Can you put it off? Oh it's definitely worth it if you can. I just had the most amazing idea pitched to me that you absolutely have to hear." Her smile at Haku widened at the answer she couldn't hear and Miku was practically bouncing up and down on the bed's edge with excitement. "Uh huh. Yes. Definitely. I can guarantee you that if you're interested in the idea it will have wide ranging benefits to your career. Oh yes, yes absolutely. We'll be there in twenty minutes? Okay, see you then!" She took the phone from her ear and ended the call, turning the screen off and sliding it back into a pocket. Her smile took them both in. "Lunch?"

Luka took up the diamond studded sunglasses that Haku had given her and slipped them on, and Miku took a moment to rush to her room and exchange her thin purple ribbons she was wearing with the dark blue with black edged ones Haku had gifted her when she had given Haku the outfit. It was a quick little thing, but apparently they wanted to reciprocate with her wearing the outfit.

Fifteen minutes later Miku was pulling one of the big SUVs into the parking lot of a nice looking place. She could have taken the Ferrari but didn't want to risk tipping her father off yet, and besides there wasn't a back seat for a third person in the extensive foreign sports car. Haku had insisted Luka sit up front with Miku and had the back of the SUV to herself; it seemed safest that way. They parked and all got out to head inside, Miku muttering to herself, "We need a beautiful four seater, these SUVs are so clunky it's like driving a yacht."

They met Luka's manager, who had just shown up as well, just outside the doors of the restaurant heading in. She smiled and exchanged pleasantries with Luka, who then turned to introduce the others. "Hojoto-san, may I introduce Hatsune Miku and Yowane Haku." She gestured to each. "Miku-chin, Haku-chin, this is my manager Hojoto Hime."

"Pleased to meet you." Haku and Miku said in unison, bowing together.

"Pleased to meet you as well." Hime replied then ran an appraising eye over the light blue and snowy white haired girls. "Such pretty things, the both of you. And Hatsune Miku no less!" She smiled coyly. "Are you two the reason I'm here?"

Haku wasn't sure if she was supposed to reply or not but Miku tilted her head, the dark blue and black ribbons holding her side ponytails in place drifting with her hair. "You know me?"

Hime laughed softly. "Dear, I'm a talent manager. I know of all the best talent. I had always wanted to meet you when you were active. Your retirement after that unfortunate Ijinashi debacle last year was far too soon for such a talented little starlet as you, but considering who your manager was at the time it wasn't surprising." Hime paused as she noticed the darkening look on Miku's face and offered her another smile. "No one thinks it was your fault, Hatsune-san, everyone blames the oaf you had representing you."

Miku's expression brightened. "Really?! That's so good to know!" Haku narrowed her red eyes ever so slightly at that. No one else seemed to catch the way Hime had said it, but she did. Miku's retirement _last year_...

Hime pulled the doors of the restaurant open and they all filed inside. There were people in fancy suits everywhere; apparently this was a very popular place for the business world. The host seated them at a table against one wall and they ordered drinks and the lunch special, which turned out to be a popular noodle bowl. Udon noodles?! She loved udon! Haku was starving from having subsisted on nothing but corner store snacks for the past several days while avoiding the others. It turned out though to Haku's surprise that Luka and Miku seemed just as hungry as she was. They were all preoccupied with the food to the point of odd looks from Hime. It was almost as though having all three of them together at one table in and of itself was such an emotional relief that they were able to eat. Had they been having issues eating too? Haku's chest tightened.

Once the food was mostly gone the subject was broached and the others looked to Haku, so she laid out her idea for Hime the same way she had for Luka and Miku back in Luka's bedroom but without mentioning the secret of the Vocaloids. She didn't realize until Hime started lavishing the same sorts of praise on her as the others had for her brilliance and clarity of thought that she had more than half been expecting to get shot down. Hojoto Hime was a professional talent manager and she would have been the one to say if it would work or not, but she seemed just as enthused as the others. More so perhaps for what it would do for her career.

"You were right, Megurine-san, this was absolutely worth rearranging my schedule for. More than worth it!" She exalted, and Luka and Miku beamed at Haku. Hime ran an appraising eye over her. "You are really something, Yowane-san. Beauty AND brains, my my my." Haku flushed at the compliments, and surprisingly so did Luka and Miku if a much lighter shade. "This is really something you've got here, I'm deeply impressed by your business acumen Yowane-san. I will gladly manage you, and with your help in the management process I would be glad to do so for the rest of it as well."

"Then you agree?" Luka said excitedly as Miku practically bounced in her chair as she had done on the edge of the bed in Luka's room.

"Absolutely." Hime said, and Luka and Miku let out a soft cheer. Haku didn't cheer, but she smiled happily. She was pleased with herself, she had found a way to contribute that didn't involve her parents in any way.

The rest of the lunch meeting was spent hammering out details for the next few weeks. There were still any number of details to be seen to, such as branding and marketing and phone calls to venues, production necessities, wardrobe concerns, everything had to be seen to. Luka had a show coming up the following week and she wanted it to be headed under their new group, which Hime tried to talk her out of because of how much paperwork and administrative difficulties that sort of change on such short notice would cause but Luka was insistent. Finally they agreed to not change anything on the administrative side but to have the venue add their group name to signs for the show under Luka's name to start getting it in the public's eyes.

"That raises the question," Hime said as though having just thought of it. "What IS your group's name?"

Haku and Luka exchanged a glance, but Miku didn't hesitate, throwing an arm up in the air like a seated victory pose. "We're the Vocaloids!"

After lunch was concluded Hime paid the bill and they headed out. The others tried to object but she laughed. "It's a business expense, I have to document it. Besides, if this all pans out the way I'm absolutely confident it will, it'll be a mere drop in the bucket! Fame and fortune await you girls, I'm positive of that!" Once out in the parking lot she laughed and waved and drove off, and the others looked at each other.

"Is it really okay using the same name as our secret organization?" Luka asked the obvious question. "Wouldn't that make it less secret?"

"Nah! It's fine!" Miku giggled. "We don't have any kind of public face, so at the worst daddy can just claim it a coincidence. Any contributions we make will be funneled through private accounts, it won't be connected at all, and it definitely seems appropriate. Like Haku-chin said, we are the embodiment of our art!"

Miku's reassurances mollified the other girls, and with that out of the way a sudden awkward silence descended upon the three of them. Luka and Miku looked at each other then they both turned to look at Haku, who dropped her gaze to the pavement at her feet. They were waiting on her she realized. She had set the tone and the pace of this entire excursion, and if anything else were to come of it it would be her call this time. They didn't press, but they didn't have to, she felt the pressure, the weight of their stares. She felt her chest tightening up once more.

"I think…" She practically croaked the words out and cleared her throat with a little cough. "I think I'll… I'll walk back…" The other two blinked in surprise and tried to object but Haku shook her head. "No, please. I need… I need some time to think… clear my head a little bit…" She looked up at the pained expressions on their faces and her heart broke for them a bit. She was struck by an impulse and leaned up to put her arms around their shoulders, her right arm going around Luka's left shoulder and her left arm around Miku's right. They seemed surprised, they were in a parking lot! But Haku's face ended up between their heads and she whispered between their ears, "I know it hurts… I'm sorry for that, really. You've both been so patient with me, but… I need a little more time. Please? I'm not… quite ready to face this yet…"

They gave little nods and squeezed her back, turning it into a sort of group hug. Any passersby would probably just attribute it to three young girls being friendly, or she hoped that was all anyway. "It's okay, Haku-chin…" The idol whispered, and even that was like crystal. "We're the ones that did this to you, you take as much time as you need." None of them wanted to let go, and they all knew it, so once again Haku had to swallow hard and be the strong one, though she didn't think of it that way at all. She finally pulled back, letting her arms drop away. They let her go and she turned and walked out of the parking lot and down the sidewalk. She could feel their gazes on her back the entire way. She didn't look back, she couldn't. She knew if she did she'd stop and be unable to go on.

She was in that daze again, not fully registering where she was going or what she was doing, crossing streets and taking turns by instinct rather than conscious thought. She made her way along but after a time of walking and thinking she found she was not at the Vocaloid Compound at all, she was actually at the same strip mall as before. She only just realized she had been following her instincts. Vocaloids were creatures of instinct and emotion after all. She went in, some part of her not knowing why or where she was going, another part absolutely sure of her need. Emotional release, Hibiki-sensei had said. Good or bad, put all your emotions into it…

She went into the designer store and walked through the aisles and up to the back wall where they had racks of some of the most gorgeous dresses she had ever seen before. They were all beautiful but she went straight to one almost as though she had known it would be there, never having seen it before in her life. It was a black chinese dress, a cheongsam that fell nearly to the ankles but was slit up the sides to the hips, the hem, arms holes, neckline, and heart shaped oval cut out in the upper chest all lined with thread of gold embroidery. Silver rose vines climbed the sides and up the bodice on front and back with gold roses all along it, both buds and fully bloomed. The metallic silvers and golds glinted in the store's soft light. A wispy transparent black waist wrap came with it, as well as the upper shoulder piece that was less transparent but still not fully opaque.

Haku removed the display tag and took it to the front counter. "I'd like this dress please." She said, and the clerk smiled and went to box it up for her. While the clerk was gone she walked over to a rack of shoes. She found some velvety back heeled outdoor slippers that would match perfectly, and beside the shoes various types of leggings. She picked out some lacy leggings that were partially see through that were worked in swirling patterns. On another rack she found gloves that matched the leggings that went up past her elbows. Then on her way back to the counter she idly wandered over to the jewelry case to look. It wasn't a large selection but there was an intricate silver necklace with diamonds dangling from it cut to look like raindrops. Still operating on impulse she asked for that too when the clerk came back. It would look like the diamond raindrops on the necklace were watering the golden roses on the dress.

She clutched the boxes to herself tightly already feeling her emotions churning within her. Emotional release… good or bad… need to get them out… she was careful not to crush her packages even while holding tightly to them. When she got back she went straight to her room to set the boxes on her bed, then went to take a bath. She had rushed her bath that morning as usual, and she wanted to be completely clean for this. The lunch meeting had gone well into mid afternoon from all the talking and planning they had done, and between the walk to the strip mall and back home added in it was already nearly early evening. She took her time washing at the faucets, scrubbing and rinsing every last inch of herself thoroughly, then she took a nice long soak in the giant tub. She didn't turn on any of the jets, just lay in the water face up, her sizable chest floating but simultaneously pushing her deeper into the water. She closed her eyes and let herself drift in the water for a long time. Still operating on instinct, she knew she would know when it was time, and she did when it came.

Leaving the bathroom wrapped head to toe in towels she made for her room quickly, luckily not passing anyone. Once in her room she dried herself off carefully, toweled her hair mostly dry, then tossed all the towels aside. She'd pick them up later, she was very neat in general, but at the moment it was more important to let herself finish air drying. She opened the box and laid the beautiful dress out on her bed, then did the same with the necklace. Then she went over to the nightstand and fished out a thin fresh pair of black lacy panties and pulled them up her legs. That done she began brushing her hair out, one hundred strokes. By the time she was finished her cascading silvery white strands were silky and dry and she pulled her hair back with a black ribbon similar to her favorite black bow if a little narrower. Then she sat at the makeup stand. Black mostly for eyelashes and eyeliner, then a rose red blush to set off her eyes, and a blood red lipstick. Finally it was time, and she started with the leggings, pulling them on and rolling them up passed her knees to mid thigh. Next came the dress itself, manipulating the beautiful material delicately as she slid it over herself so as not to crease it. Then the wispy transparent black waist wrap and the shoulder piece. Once it was on and she had tied the few laces carefully she stepped into the heeled slippers, and then finally came the necklace and then the gloves; she didn't want to catch the gloves material in the necklace so she did them last. Once she was all finished she appraised herself in the mirror. Everything was perfect, her instincts were right where they needed to be every step of the way tonight. Need… emotion… impulse...

Finding access to the roof wasn't hard, she just had to be careful not to let her new dress brush up against anything grimy. The Vocaloid Compound was only a few stories high, and she found a spot by the outer yard by the garages that was raised up a little higher which she stepped up onto, probably used to make address to anyone below. There was no one down there now, but that wasn't why she was here. Twilight was thick all around, and the moon and the first stars were just starting to sparkle in the sky as the light of the sun was fading but not entirely gone. It was exactly the right time, and she began to dance. The music came instantly, her body vibrating and her sonic energies responding, and she let her voice rise with the melody. There were no words, it wasn't any actual song, but guided by her instincts the music was perfect, as if conducted by a master orchestra director. Her singing had no lyrics, it was just harmonizing, but it was far from simple. She shifted notes as though she were singing, and though there were no words it sounded almost as if there were, almost as if there were a message.

That message was melancholy. Led by her emotions the tune was beautiful, but sad. Pretty but haunting. Slow paced, but purposeful. Serene, yet filled with her sorrows. She moved, she stepped, she twirled, and her white hair flashed silvery in the light of twilight as it swirled around her, as did the wispy black waist wrap and the slit portions of the dress itself. Elbows bent, hands at chest height, she twisted and dipped, ducked and weaved, spun and moved about the platform, and the music was all. And she danced. She was right at the edge of the platform, right up against the raised lip of the edge of the roof. One misstep and she would have fallen, but that was impossible, not guided by her instincts as she was this night.

Her red eyes were raised, and she sang to the moon and the stars, telling them through her music of her sorrows, telling them of the fierceness of her hurt, imploring them to understand the boundless depths of her breaking heart. All the pain from the past week, all the anxiety, all of the melancholy came out in that wordless melody that she offered up to the sky as she danced and twirled to her body's song it was producing through her sonic energies. She had no idea how long she danced, had no idea how long she had been up here. It had been a long time. An eternity maybe. It wasn't enough. She danced on, sang on. She let it out, let it all out, let it stream out of her up to the sky. And then she began to vibrate, and she let that out too.

Her sonic energies began to pulse into the air, directed by her upturned face, her hands when they would raise up, her shoulders as she would twist or weave in a step. Massive energy waves that exploded up into the air with flashes of light no normal human could have seen, echoing sonic booms that no average person could have heard. They weren't louder than her music though, even with all the sonic booms her body seemed to keep that music above all else, that hauntingly beautiful melody echoing through the courtyard below, off the walls of the building, off the roof and up to the sky. Emotional release, impulses, need. The feelings were all, the music was all, they were one and the same, the music was her feelings.

Finally the melody began to slow and wind down. She didn't will it to, it just happened, her body as guided by her instincts as her mind. She had done what she had set out to do, had offered her emotions up to the stars. She felt better already, clearer, more relieved. It had worked, it was a wonderfully euphoric feeling. She turned a few final steps as the melody wound down and came to rest on the very edge of the platform, facing the courtyard below in a serene pose, eyes closed and one arm raised in front of herself with the back of her hand to her lips, fingers extended, the other hand around her middle, her knees bent. Her snowy white cascading hair fluttered to a rest behind her as the music finally faded all together and she just stood there in the light of the stars and the moon. Night had fully fallen and her dress and her hair positively glowed in the light of heaven under the night sky.

And suddenly the applause began. Her red eyes popped open and the world seemed to rush back to her and she looked down. The height was dizzying, she really hadn't been consciously aware of how close to the edge she was. There must have been two dozen people down there assembled in the yard below, every face gazing up at her, every eye tear filled with wet tracks down their cheeks from the raw emotion in her hauntingly beautiful song. Mr. and Ms. Hatsune, arms linked and still clapping, were down there, as was Doctor Hatsune's assistant Harune Hikari. She recognized the faces of the various directors scattered about too. Gackpo was down there, and she saw Gumi and Teto as well, and even Hibiki-sensei apparently back from whatever event had occurred that morning. She saw faces of other Vocaloids she had passed in the hallways during her months here but had never actually met yet. And there, right in the front, right where they could get the best possible look at her, were Luka and Miku. Their faces were more streaked wet with tears than any of the others, and they clapped even harder than the rest. More than anyone else they understood why she had needed this, and somehow Haku knew they had been the first out here to see what was going on.

It was then that Haku realized just how loud of a racket she had been causing. Well, not to the average human perception certainly. To anyone walking by the only things they would have been able to tell was a woman dancing and humming on a roof with music coming from somewhere, which they would probably have attributed to an outdoor loudspeaker. But the music had been loud, that much she knew now, and that would probably have been enough to draw everyone out by itself, even apart from the sonic fireworks display she had been causing in the sky. She stood there looking down at them as they applauded for her, and another realization came to her. She had been up here for at least an hour, perhaps more. Full dark had settled, and she had danced on. Someone below whistled, she thought it was Gackpo. Blushing furiously at the attention she gave a little bow and turned to step off the platform back onto the roof.

Because she was able to come down from a roof access and straight into the needed hallways and everyone else had to funnel back in amongst all the others and then traverse side hallways she was able to make it back to her room before anyone got to her. She locked the door, undressed, put her beautiful new dress and accessories carefully away in the wardrobe, then went straight to bed. Then, for the first time this entire week, she didn't cry herself to sleep.

… … … … …

The door was locked and there was no answer when Luka knocked gently. Some small part of her had hoped the gorgeous white haired girl would want to talk to them now after her emotional performance, but it seemed she either still didn't want to or was already asleep. It would make sense if she were, considering the sheer amount of raw emotional release she had displayed tonight. Luka had never seen the like of it before. All Vocaloids were emotional and instinctual creatures, but when they needed such a release they usually turned to each other, either for practice or training, or for more… intimate reasons.

"She was dancing for us." Miku whispered beside the idol, and Luka nodded her agreement.

"I know. She wanted us to see how badly she was hurting. She couldn't tell us directly, she was in too much pain because of- this situation." She had almost said because of her again, but Miku had made her promise to stop blaming herself. It was hard not to see it as her fault though. She was the one who had encouraged and led on the new Vocaloid even though she had past ties to Miku. She was dirty and awful and- _No, stop,_ she admonished herself, _you promised_.

Miku shook her head though. "No, not because she couldn't tell us, because she didn't know how. She didn't have the words, and we've been pressuring her to talk to us."

Luka thought about that for a moment, that made sense too. Haku had never been in a relationship before, had never had any real emotional connections to anyone before them because of being shut in by her parents as a child and teenager. The red eyed mysterious beauty was brilliant and more perceptive than anyone Luka had ever known, but she lacked certain social graces. That must have been it, it all fit. Miku was so good at reading people, and she didn't even do it on purpose. Like so many other things with Vocaloids it was instinctual.

The idol reached out a hand to place on the door to Haku's room, her long flowing pink ponytail swaying gently as she did. She flattened her palm against the soft wood with her fingers splayed and whispered, "You were wonderful tonight, Haku-chin. You were beautiful, radiant, and amazing."

Miku's eyes teared up again, but not from personal pain, just from the sheer emotions that Haku's hauntingly beautiful yet sad song had evoked this night. She reached up to do the same as Luka, and whispered as well. "You are the most unique person I have ever met, Haku-chin. You're brilliant and gorgeous and your dance was fantastic."

They stood there for a time like that, just holding their hands against the door and letting their tears silently fall. They weren't crying for themselves tonight, they were weeping for Haku. They still didn't know what to do for her. Neither could deny any longer that they felt something for her, but they couldn't deny their feelings for each other either. They were at a loss, but somehow through the instincts and emotions that had poured out this night, they knew that things were getting a little better.

After long minutes they finally dropped their hands and looked to the other. Miku's long light blue side twintails trailed over her shoulders and arms, and Luka reached up to brush at her tears. "It will be okay, Miku-chin."

Miku nodded, then abruptly let out a tear choked giggle. "Wasn't I the one saying that to you this morning?"

Luka smiled and nodded. "Yes, you were. And you were right, too. I can see that now. I believe it now. It's just still so hard not to feel like I caused all this."

Miku wrapped her arms around the idol and Luka felt warmth spread through her. "I know." Was all the pretty blue haired girl said. They hugged for a time before retreating to Luka's room to go to sleep. They had shared Luka's bed every night that week, just slept beside each other, needing the warmth and companionship. Other urges were furiously stamped down for the time being. Neither could stand the thought of doing anything more than that while Haku was hurting the way she was, so they waited, and hoped.


	13. Vocaloid Academy Chapter 13

When Haku blinked awake the following morning with a cute little yawn after her intense dance the previous night she felt more refreshed than she had in a long time. She blinked her red eyes a few times to clear them before throwing back her covers to sit up. It was a little chilly in her room today, the cold air seeming to blast her mostly bare skin. She had taken off her beautiful new dress the night before and simply gone to bed in her panties. She hadn't even wrapped up her snowy white hair properly, she thought with a grimace. She stood to get her hairbrush to work out the tangles and stopped in surprise.

The bedroom doors in the Vocaloid Compound were all soft wood and taller than most doors, and there wasn't much of a gap in the frames, but there was just enough room underneath to slide something thin, like paper or perhaps an envelope, which was what she saw piled up under her door. She walked over to them and knelt down to look. They were cards, perhaps a dozen of them, some hand drawn and handwritten, others clearly store bought. Why were they here? She scooped them into a pile and carried them over to the makeup stand where her hairbrush was and set them on it, picking one up and opening it.

"Yowane-san, your performance may not have been for the sake of performing but it was still the most emotional and beautiful dance I have ever seen. You are wonderful, and I hope whatever is bothering you will soon be worked out. -Kasane Teto"

Haku blinked in surprise, Teto had written this? She was so reserved face to face. The medium of a note must have made her able to open up more. She picked up another.

"Instinct and emotion will guide you, Yowane-san. You are learning fast, and I am deeply impressed. Fantastic dance, don't forget to follow your heart. -Hibiki Mokoto"

Follow her heart… she thought she was trying. She lifted another.

"All artists encounter moments whence the work they produce achieves a much higher state of perfection than their original design, yet tonight you have shown that sometimes the most beautiful results can be attained through the exact intent. I am beyond words, well done Yowane-san. -Camui Gackpo."

He had no words, yet here were a bunch. She couldn't help smiling at the oxymoron that Gackpo sometimes delivered.

She sat there and read through every last one of the cards. They were all the same, some from people she knew others from those she hadn't met in the compound yet. Praise for her beauty and magnificent performance and well wishes for whatever was upsetting her so. She felt a little choked up at the unexpectedly kind gestures of those around her, and when she was done reading them all she stacked the treasures neatly and placed them in the lowest drawer of her makeup stand for safe keeping. Then she took up her hairbrush and went to work removing the knots and tangles from the night.

Haku's stomach suddenly let out a loud rumble and she realized she hadn't eaten anything the previous day aside from the bowl of noodles at the lunch meeting. She was glad no one was around to hear it, it was rather embarrassing. Digging out some fresh underwear, dark blue jeans and a white silk blouse with a sky blue and light green floral pattern, she headed for the bath. A few people stopped her to echo the sentiments that were on her cards, telling her how amazing her dance had been and they hoped she was feeling okay. She smiled and nodded and ducked her head, murmuring thanks to each and hurrying on as politely as she could. She wanted a nice long soak in the tub but her stomach was gnawing with hunger so she lingered only as long as she could stand it and then went out.

Some small part of her hoped that Miku and Luka would pop up around a corner. She was feeling well enough that she thought she would be able to face them today, though she wasn't sure what she would say yet, but she never ran into them on the way out. So she headed back to the strip mall once more, as she had so often of late. It wasn't that she especially liked or disliked it really, it was just the only place she knew around the Vocaloid Compound. She hadn't been in this area long enough to know if overly well yet and hadn't felt adventurous enough to go exploring around, but the strip mall would do well enough with it's food court.

The mall was abuzz with activity and it wasn't hard to imagine why being Saturday, even mid morning as it was. She entered the food court and found a place she liked the look of and ordered a bit of miso and fried rice with tofu. She took her tray to an empty table nearby and settled herself, taking her iPhone out of her pocket and glancing through the notifications. She blinked. She had texts from Luka and Miku. She tapped Luka's first and read it. "You were wonderful tonight, Haku-chin. You were beautiful, radiant, and amazing." She flushed deeply, even though there was no one nearby to see really. She tapped Miku's message and read it too. "You are the most unique person I have ever met, Haku-chin. You're brilliant and gorgeous and your dance was fantastic." Her flush deepened, and although it was still a little painful to think of them she felt such relief that she saved the texts to her cloud drive, a way of preserving these treasures digitally as she had the paper notes in her room.

She thought about answering the texts, wondering if she even should, and if she did what would she say? She sipped at her soup thinking about it letting her gaze wander about aimlessly, then her red eyes suddenly landed on a table where two men and a woman were sitting. They were the only other people at tables near hers, and as she watched she suddenly grew extremely fascinated. They were all holding hands, all three of them, right there at their table in public where anyone could see! What's more they were all gazing back and forth into each other's eyes with very suggestive looks on their faces, the kind of looks you were supposed to give someone behind closed doors. Haku felt an urge to look away, it was a private moment and she like most had grown up to believe it was indecent to show much affection in public. There were always the rebellious who did it anyway of course, like these people, but it was generally the mentality not to look at them. Even so, she found she couldn't look away. She flushed deeper hoping they didn't notice her, but she watched fascinated. They all three were very clearly a couple. One couple with three people. Like a group… couple…? Was that… was that possible…?

It was at that moment that something Hibiki-sensei had said the other day popped into her head when she had thought something like what she was seeing now was somehow dirty. " _Oh my no! Or else someone is going to have to explain things to my significant others!"_ Hibiki-sensei was in a relationship like this, with multiple people, and had said something else about love. " _Love is a delicate and tricky thing, and each time it appears for someone it's like a snowflake; special and unique and different than any other. If you try to catch it too strenuously, it melts away, but if you do nothing, it drifts on by to land somewhere else."_ She thought about that, watching the three person couple before her. It was obvious from the way each was looking at the other two that they were all in love. It wasn't… somehow abnormal…? Miku's voice rang in her mind from a past conversation; " _What is okay or normal for some isn't necessarily the same for others."_ Hibiki-sensei had said that later too, and kept telling her to follow her heart, that it already knew what it wanted, she just had to listen to it. The entire idea seemed so outlandish to her, but even Gackpo had said something that seemed to apply to this situation, though he had been talking about something else at the time. " _Learn to think outside of traditional lines of reasoning and the possibilities which will open to your mind will be as numerous as the stars in the night sky!"_

And then she knew. Vocaloids were emotional instinctual creatures, and her impulses were guiding her, her heart was guiding her. This was the answer, she thought looking at the beautiful scene before her as the threesome continued staring adoringly between each other. It wasn't dirty or perverted at all! If was beautiful and pure, multiple people accepting and loving each other unconditionally. If Luka and Miku were okay with this… this was the answer. Her desires for Luka had been hot and sudden from the beginning, an attraction right from the start that had driven her, and now as she thought about Miku as well, it had been the opposite, the slow gradual build up, laughing together, getting to know each other, brushing the other's hair when they were both so protective of their own, the accidental near kiss they hadn't quite had. Hibiki-sensei had been able to see that she and Miku were clearly interested in each other before they themselves had known, and she saw now that it was true. Her feelings for Miku burned just as intently now as they did for Luka. This was the answer, if they were okay with it…

Suddenly she smiled. The relief of a weight lifting off her chest over this entire situation was immense. Almost immediately the weight settled back onto her though. If they weren't okay with it… she tried not to think about it, tried hard not to let it ruin the moment. If they weren't okay with it, then at least there would be an end to the situation one way or another. They would have to be the ones to decide if it were right or not, since they had been together before Haku had shown up as the third wheel. But she hoped, oh she hoped so much, that this worked out. Follow her instincts, listen to her heart. This is what she wanted, and she would act on that. She stood up from her table and dumped her food. She wasn't done with it but her appetite seemed to have vanished.

Now that she had a path and a purpose it was easier to move forward with things. She felt her instincts tugging at her again, and while not as powerful as it had been the day before she knew what she wanted. She found a jewelry store, a real one not a random stand in the designer store, and began looking around. She knew she'd know what she was after when she found it, she could feel it to her core. She moved from case to case of gorgeous rings and necklaces, chains and pendants, gems and precious stones. One of the clerks came up to ask if she needed help finding anything, but she just smiled and shook her head and kept on. Then suddenly, she found it. She called the clerk back and pointed down through the glass case.

"How many of these do you have?" She wanted to know, but she already knew the answer somehow.

"Why, I believe we have several in the back." The man answered. A greying gentleman but still vibrant, he smiled at her. "Would you like me to get you one?"

"I would like three, please."

He blinked in mild surprise. "Three? My word."

Haku flushed faintly but smiled. "Gifts." She added. He made a little "Ah" expression and then went to get the lockets. Haku had grown up with high tech toys; her parents were rich and never around so they had practically thrown their money at her in their stead, so she had always had all the latest and greatest toys. This had caused her to develop a taste and appreciation for high tech gadgets. Her favorite things were when old styles of design met modern tech and blended in interesting ways. These lockets were a perfect example of that.

The gentleman came back with three long thin boxes with gold leaf design paper covering them. He opened the lids to show they were all there nestled on black velvet pillows, then lifted one out carefully so she could inspect it. The heart shape of the lockets themselves were a little larger than the average locket to accommodate the micro circuitry encased within. Rather than opening up to show a space for little pictures they had tiny black display screens about the same size as a picture would have been in them. The casings of the hearts were a pinkish gold as were the fine chains, and each had a smaller diamond heart on either side set within the larger gold heart shaped casing, a heart within a heart.

"Eighteen karat rose gold, a pair of ten millimeter four carat heart diamonds in each. Inch and a half screen sizes for thumbnail pictures." He said, turning the locket he was holding up as she looked at it.

"I don't see a battery or charging port. Wireless battery docks?"

He gave a little nod, "My you're a quick one aren't you? Yes, they come with little stands you can hang them on that will charge them wirelessly, like some of the new cell phones have. Screens enter sleep mode when the lockets close, and the battery lasts about a week when in standby."

"Are they connected to a cloud for pictures?" Haku wanted to know, and he shook his head.

"They are managed by a phone app transmitted by bluetooth. Just take a picture and upload it with the app."

They were absolutely perfect and after she checked out she hurried out of the strip mall carrying a bag with the jewelry store's logo with the boxes inside. She wanted to get back as soon as she could. Excitement and anxiety were at war within her and she flashed from one to the next and back every moment, but she was set in her decision. She had to tell them, had to let them both know how she felt about them.

As she walked along the streets she happened to glance down a side street and had to stop at a sudden cute sight. Three kittens were surrounding a little dish sharing it's contents. She couldn't see what was in the dish from there but she took the sight as a good omen. Three kittens pressed in together sharing… she slipped a hand into her pocket and drew out her iPhone, waking it up and opening the camera, placing her thumb over the shutter button.

"Yowane Haku."

The voice was low, darkly beautiful, and chilling. Haku turned in surprise, she knew that voice. Kiku gave her no time to respond.

"You have defied me, but you are mine. I will make you worthy of me!" Her hands flashed in a quick blur and she did a little step in place. The low note that came out of her seemed to resonate in an oddly dark way, and the light that came seemed almost like a photo negative, drawing light from the air rather than flashing outward.

Haku never had time to do more than turn. The negative light hit her and her entire body convulsed, her hands clenching where they were and her legs spasming, and all she knew was pain. She never even felt her iPhone drop from her grasp to hit the ground.

… … … … …

"Miku? Megurine-san?" Director Hatsune's deep booming bass echoed down the corridor the two girls were walking along and they stopped and turned back to see him catching them up. Somehow the tall broad chested man managed to move quickly without really appearing to hurry. When he drew close they could see a scowl on the square jawed face as he ran a hand through his teal military crewcut. "I'm glad you're both here, it means you're close enough to respond."

"Respond?" Miku asked.

Luka's blue eyes narrowed a bit. "Souldrinker?"

The director hesitated a moment before nodding, which was alarming in and of itself. He was a blunt and direct man, not one to mince words. "The signal we detected… is far higher than any we have ever detected before. I do not believe either of you is capable of handling it alone."

Luka tilted her head slightly not sure what the problem was, "Then we'll Resonate."

Miku stared at her father a long moment before asking quietly, "What aren't you telling us daddy?"

Director Hatsune looked at first one girl then the other with a heavy look full of meaning before answering. "Yowane-san left the compound this morning. The signal is coining from the direction she was seen heading, toward that strip mall east of here. Be careful!" That last was a booming shout which echoed down the hallway following both girls as they took off at a dead sprint.

Luka's heart was pounding and adrenaline shot through her as she ran full tilt down the halls toward the garages. Miku kept pace right beside her, pink and light blue pony tails streaming behind them like manes as they took corners and stairs at full speed. They were both breathing heavily as they reached the garage but they were dancers and well toned; it wasn't exertion that took their breaths, it was fear. Mortal terror for the snowy white haired beauty they both cared so much for.

They flung the doors of the Ferrari open and threw themselves into the seats. Slamming the doors and not wanting to waste even a second Luka jammed her keycard into the chip reader as Miku hit the garage door controls then slammed her fist against the "Engine Start" button. The Ferrari roared to life and Miku threw it into reverse, tires screaming so hard they left a trail of rubber on the concrete floor and burnt rubber smoke hanging in the air behind them on their way out of the garage.

"Hurry hurry hurry hurry hurry!" Luka practically shrieked as she held on tight to the passenger side door, but Miku didn't need to be told. Had any police been in the area they would certainly have been stopped but Miku wasn't sparing the throttle and the Ferrari roared down the street.

Luka's phone buzzed and she took the Android out of her pocket to look. Directions to the detected location. She looked up and pointed. "On the main route to the strip mall, mouth of an alley two blocks after the second turn!"

Face set in a grim determination Miku threw the wheel over early and they flew through the first turn onto a side street less populated but she didn't slow down. The Ferrari ate the street up as the engine roared and Miku missed the second turn. Luka's heart leapt into her throat and she stared at Miku. "What are you-!" She started to shout before gravity grabbed hold of her and pulled her against her door as Miku turned a block late. Then Luka saw what she was doing and understood.

They pulled around to come up the alleyway from the other side and found themselves blocked by a large white van. Miku hit the brakes, parked and cut the engine and they both practically dove out off the car. They ran around the van and stopped dead at the sight.

Juon Kiku had her hands up before her swaying gently in place and humming an eerie sounding otherworldly song, her face pale and her eyes swirling black solid orbs as her dark lacy dress blew about her as if in a breeze though there wasn't so much as a stirring in the air. The notes flowed into each other so the tune continued unbroken, and a crackling photo negative sort of anti light jumped from her fingertips like she was weaving black lightning bolts with her twining fingers. The black lightning was jumping a few feet from her outstretched hands directly to Haku. The white haired girl was stretched up on her tiptoes, arms flung out to either side with her eyes closed. She was shuddering and shaking from head to toe enveloped in the eerie crackling light.

Whatever she was doing to Haku, Kiku was fully intent on. Luka didn't hesitate and neither did Miku. They stepped forward as one, no words needed between them. Luka lifted her right hand toward the darkly beautiful woman, and Miku to her left raised her left hand simultaneously at the exact same angle. They began to sing, mouths open wide as a horrifying tempo immediately kicked up around them. Luka felt the familiar sort of sonic energies seeming to rebound with each other as her and Miku's sonics blended together, merged, then were one. She felt the vibrations within her spike higher than she could have managed alone, far higher than either of them could have. Their energies were one, and they Resonated. It happened in the space of a heartbeat, and as Kiku turned at the sound of their terrifying wrath it was already too late for her. Their bodies twisted, arms directed, their one voice channeled the sonic power. The resulting sonic boom so far out of normal perception ranges hit Kiku squarely and the rushing torrent of residual energies blew over anything and everything within the alleway. Cans, paper, litter, dirt, even the vehicles jostled about. A Vocaloid's body movements directed their sonic energies toward specific targets, but this was more than a simple sonic wave. Both of them were putting their absolute all into this, every scrap of strength they could bring to bear they did, accompanied by their sheer terror for the snowy white haired beauty.

Kiku flew back so hard it wasn't clear whether she managed any sort of defensive energies to rebuff her from the wall she hit, but brick and mortar spiderwebbed with cracks around where she hit and she slumped to the ground. Luka and Miku immediately ran to Haku as she collapsed, kneeling beside her prone form and shouting her name. "Haku-chin!" Miku shrieked, her normally wind chime like voice panicked.

"Haku-chin!" Luka screamed on top of her. She took Haku's head in her arms and cradled it to her leg even as Miku took up her limp hands. She was cold, clammy, and she could feel… something… deep inside the other girl, something affecting her inside. "Haku-chin! Please be okay! Haku-chin please! Please please please!" Tears filled the idol's eyes and ran down her cheeks unchecked. "Haku-chin! Please, we need you! Please!" She rocked back and forth gently with Haku's head.

Miku gasped and held her arms up, a slightly relieved cry popping out of her throat. "She's alive! I can feel her pulse! We have to get her to my mom!"

They both suddenly paused for a moment as they saw Haku's lips move ever so slightly. For an instant relief and hope surged through Luka's breast and both girls leaned their heads down to put their ears to her mouth to listen. They had to strain to understand the sound so faint was her silvery voice but they caught it. Haku's tone was a bland neutral monotone as she mumbled over and over again, "Error, critical systems failure, unauthorized access. Error, critical systems failure, unauthorized access. Error, critical systems failure, unauthorized access. Error, critical systems failure, unauthorized access. Error, critical systems failure, unauthorized access."

The two powerful Vocaloids looked up at each other with bewildered expressions on their faces. "What…?" Miku began but had no words. Neither girl understood what was going on.

Luka shuddered trying to pull herself together and scooped up one of Haku's arms as Miku got the other. "Let's just get her out of here." They noticed the things on the ground; a shopping bag and Haku's iPhone which had hit the pavement hard on one corner. The screen was completely blown out and the backing and battery and a few bits of circuitry lay nearby. Miku grabbed the phone and pieces and Luka the bag and they started shuffling Haku's unconscious form toward the Ferrari, then stopped as they turned to see Kiku standing by the cracked brick wall. She was wobbling badly, not bleeding but clearly having been severely shaken by her smack against the wall.

"I… will give you one chance…" Kiku panted harshly in her low dark voice. "You have taken… Yowane-san… away from me once… if you do it again… I will not… spare you… the consequences…"

Luka and Miku glanced at each other over Haku's head hanging forward between them, then looked back at Kiku, green eyes and blue narrowing, and Luka shook her head. "I told you before, she's not yours to claim. You'll have to get through us if you want her."

"And you had better hope she's okay after whatever you were doing to her." Miku added, the silk having slipped from her steel core. "If you've hurt her, we will be coming for you."

Kiku sagged against the wall, having a hard time holding herself upright she was so dizzy, but she still laughed, a dark ringing sound. "Hurt her? ... Does it not hurt... to flex muscles that have... so rarely been used? … When you sit in one spot so long your limbs fall asleep... does it not hurt to wake them? … What I did… I did in her best interest…" She pushed off the wall and stumbled toward the large white van and climbed inside. "This is… your last chance… I will not… show mercy after this…"

Luka and Miku traded glances again then without another word began moving past the van toward the Ferrari. Kiku watched them go turning only her head with a muttered "As you wish…" but she didn't try to stop them. They got to the car and pulled the passenger door open, but the Ferrari didn't have a back seat so Luka got in first leaving Miku to hold Haku up, then once she was settled Miku gently lowered Haku down onto Luka's lap. They carefully got her legs inside and Miku shut the door making sure not to close it on anyone. Then she dashed around to the driver side and hopped in. The engine fired up with a roar and Miku took off back toward the Compound in the same speedy fashion she had gotten them there. They didn't speak the whole way back, each silent with worry as tears continued leaking down their faces. Luka clutched Haku to herself, one hand on the other girl's head and the other around her middle. She smelled so good, a hint of lavender soap and vanilla scent. She could have been asleep there in the idol's lap, except for her nearly silent murmuring, and Luka pressed her face to the top of Haku's head, her shoulders shaking with her silent sobs, mirrored by Miku as she clutched the steering wheel.

Once they had pulled in and gotten Haku out of the car they called for a stretcher, and a few moments later Doctor Hatsune and Doctor Haruna came out with one on wheels. They laid Haku out on it, grabbed her things, and hurried to the medical ward. The doctors tried to get Luka and Miku to wait outside of the exam room, but they both stubbornly refused, their jaws set with frowns, and so Director Hatsune had to come in with them when he showed up to ask what happened. They took turns relating the story while the doctors looked Haku over, hooking her up to the various medical machines and sonic testers in the room. When one of them choked up the other took over until they were able to get the whole explanation out in bits and pieces.

When they were finally done relating what had happened Director Hatsune glanced them over. If he had any thoughts about the clearly deeply emotional reaction of his two top Vocaloids he didn't say anything about it, at least not at the moment, but he did hold his hand out. "May I see Yowane-san's iPhone please?" Miku had it clutched to her chest, Haku was so fond of it, but she handed it to her father without a word. He nodded and looked over the damage briefly before sliding it into his pocket. "There is a possibility there may be some recoverable data, and possibly a further clue into this Juon Kiku for us to investigate."

The girls nodded, neither saying anything, Luka clutching the shopping bag in her hands. Director Hatsune excused himself and stepped out and they watched while the exam was completed, the two women in lab coats running tests and administering a few doses of medications with different syringes. At one point they noticed her lips moving and Doctor Hatsune leaned down to put an ear to her lips, then Haruna did. The two women traded looks and Doctor Hatsune leaned over to the sonic machine in the room. She hooked up a few wires to Haku from the opposite side of the white haired girl than Luka could see before tapping a few keys on the machine. A few moments later Haku's lips went still and both girls blinked in confusion. After a time Doctor Hatsune walked over and looked at the girls. "She's… stable." Miku's mom said, and Miku looked up with a questioning look on her face. The doctor sighed and went on, seeing that wasn't enough for them. "I don't know what happened to her, or how this woman managed to do it, but I do know what effect it had. Her entire body is resonating on a deep level, so deep and so low it almost didn't register on the machines at first."

"We felt it…" Luka said, and Miku nodded. "Something affecting her deep down…"

"What was that she was mumbling?" Miku wanted to know. "Systems failure?"

"I don't know, people sometimes say strange things when they get hurt…" It wasn't really an answer and Miku's mother took a deep breath and added the rest, rushing on with the diagnosis. "Whatever Juon-san did, Yowane-san's entire body is undergoing some sort of change. A Vocaloid's powers come awake gradually through training and use, but all of Yowane-san's power is waking up all at once as though forced to do so. It's like if you woke up in the morning and the very instant you were conscious enough to think you dove out of bed before your body was ready to move, only dozens of times more intensely, hundreds of times. When she wakes up, she will likely be very close to her full potential in raw power. It has been forced awake within her, and she may not be able to control it."

"Is that why she's unconscious still?" Luka asked, and Doctor Hatsune nodded.

"Her body is having to use everything it has to compensate, but we're not entirely sure how or even if she's managing to do it safely or effectively. She's stable for now, but… well any minute…" The doctor trailed off but they both understood. If Haku's body couldn't handle it, she would die, her own sonic energies would literally vibrate her apart..

Luka began to cry outright, the barely contained tears flooding out of her. She dropped Haku's shopping bag and let her face fall into her hands as her shoulders shook. "I've failed her again! This is the second time! The second time I've watched her in trouble and been unable to help her!" She wailed, and she felt Miku's arms around her as the pretty blue haired girl whispered comforting murmurs, but she was crying too, her own tears splashing onto Luka's pink hair even as she held the idol. Doctor Hatsune patted them gently on the arms as they cried, not able to do much, then she went back to tend to Haku.

Once the tears from both girls had abated for a time, Miku's mother came back. "I need to run some… additional tests…" The doctor said, and for some reason she couldn't quite put her finger on Luka didn't like the older woman's tone. "It might be best if you two went and got some rest. I promise I'll call you if anything changes."

"No." They both said at the same time. Miku dug some tissues and wet wipes out of her jeans pocket and shared them between the two of them to dab at their faces. "We're not going anywhere until she wakes up." She said as Luka turned her face away to blow her nose. "Please mom, we… we have to be here…"

Doctor Hatsune gave them a sympathetic look but nodded. "Very well." She looked at them for a long heavy moment then sighed. "Access keyword: Starlight."

Both girls froze in place, blue eyes and green alike glazing over and their expressions blanking out completely. If it weren't for the tear tracks on their cheeks it would have been impossible to tell they had been crying moments before. "Keyword accepted." They both intoned in unison in a neutral monotone.

Hatsune Mira let out a sad sigh and reached a hand up to brush her fingertips across Miku's face. "Oh my daughter… How I wish things could be different for you… I'm so sorry…"

"Error, I do not understand your command." Miku's chimelike voice retained the neutral monotone quality. "Please restate instruction."

The doctor sighed again and put a hand over her mouth as she considered the two girls before her who were so attentively waiting on her word. "If either of you remain here for the duration of Yowane-san's recovery neither of you will retain any memory of any non-standard medical tests or examinations done to her. Both of you will erase any such tests from conscious active memory and behave as if you did not see it. Are you both clear on this instruction?"

Again both girls replied in unison in the same neutral monotone. "Yes Doctor Hatsune."

A tear leaked down Mira's cheek and she allowed herself a sniffle and wiped at her cheek. She leaned forward to wrap her arms around Miku's shoulders in a motherly hug. The girl was stiff as a statue and didn't respond or reciprocate the gesture. Stepping back the doctor squeezed her eyes shut and composed herself. When she opened them again no sign of anything out of the ordinary remained and she turned her back on the girls. "Resume normal function." With that she walked back over to the exam table and began hooking wires up to Haku's head and neck from both the sonic machine and a laptop which she set up beside the table and began running diagnostics.

Luka's eyes fluttered and she reached a hand up to wipe at them. She had a sudden desire for a chocolate truffle. Such cravings came on at the oddest of times… She glanced sideways at Miku, who was also blinking blearily and wiping at her eyes. They shared a confused look and glanced at her mother who was busy tending Haku, but that was all they were concerned with. So long as she was being seen to... Doctor Haruna brought some chairs in for them and some water to sip at, and they settled in to watch and wait.

… … … … ...

"You have failed again, Juon-san."

Kiku's red orange eyes narrowed to slits but she didn't take her eyes off what she was doing, mixing the herbs and powders together in a little dish on the table in front of her. The abandoned warehouse was moderate in size but the few furnishings it had were old and dilapidated. The table wobbled on the verge of tipping over at any moment, and she had to grab ahold of it every so often to make sure it didn't.

"A temporary setback, nothing more."

"That is what you said the last time."

"Last time was not intended to be a confrontation at all." She muttered angrily. Her low dark voice seemed to ring off the empty space in the warehouse. "If you're so concerned with success Shion-san, you could do more to help."

"The master has said I am to remain in the shadows for now, you know that." A white bandaged arm flashed in the corner of Kiku's vision but she didn't turn her head from her task. The blend was almost ready.

"If you say so…"

"You would dare question the master?" The man's voice from the shadows of the warehouse was low and threatening, but she still didn't look.

"I neither question nor accept. Only a fool takes on blind faith what someone else tells them with no proof."

"So it is proof you wish." He sounded amused now, but still threatening. "Perhaps you shall have it, once you have rectified this situation."

Kiku tipped the blend over a pitcher of water, tamping the back of the shallow bowl to get all of it out. Then she picked up a long handled wooden spoon and slowly stirred the water, which turned a sickly green in short order. She stirred it long enough to make certain that all of it was dissolved, then she pulled a glass over to herself and poured some into it. She lifted it to her lips, then paused a moment.

"Trust me, I will rectify the situation." She said with a wicked tone in her voice. "I must settle a score with two of the Vocaloids, and I must claim my prize."

"And how will you accomplish this?" The man's voice asked from the shadows, but form a different side of her now. He was circling her, watching her.

Kiku tipped the glass back, downing the liquid in one long swallow. It tasted awful, but that didn't matter to her. She took a moment or two to let her puckered lips and clenched jaw relax before she answered. "I will take the fight to them."

… … … … …

Haku's red eyes fluttered open as she jerked awake with a small gasp. It was dark, a soft light somewhere providing a dim illumination. At her start awake there was movement off to the side of her and she shifted her head a little to look. Luka and Miku were instantly at her sides, and Haku saw dried tears on their cheeks. They had been crying? What was wrong? "What… happened…?" She asked, but it came back to her even as she got her answer.

Luka's hand went to her forehead and stroked the top of her head and Miku took up her left hand. "Haku-chin, you're awake!" The light blue twintailed girl said sounding relieved beyond words.

"I failed you again, Haku-chin…" Miku shot Luka an annoyed look but the pink haired beauty either didn't notice or didn't care. "Kiku got to you, we weren't in time. This is the second time I wasn't fast enough to save you." She sounded like she might start crying again.

Haku shook her head weakly. "Not your… fault…" She murmured.

"How do you feel, Haku-chin?" Miku asked cautiously.

"Floaty." Haku replied flexing her legs and arms a little. "Like my whole body is moving even when I'm holding still."

"Are you in any pain?" Luka asked worriedly, but Haku shook her head a little.

"No, no pain. Just… floaty. And tired." So very tired, she thought she might drift back off at any moment. Her eyelids felt heavy and her entire body was fuzzy and leaden. She had to struggle to stay awake.

"We should let her rest... " Miku said reluctantly, but Haku shook her head again, this time a little more vigorously.

"No, please don't go." She groped blindly for their hands and missed, but the other two girls took hers up and she relaxed a bit. "Have to… tell you both something… Are we alone?" Luka nodded at the question as Miku impulsively glanced around and Haku took a deep breath. "I know now what my heart desires. I know what I want to say to you both now."

"Is this really the best time to-" Luka started but cut off when Haku squeezed their hands a little more firmly.

"Please, I need to." Haku said. "Incase… incase I…"

Miku's hand shot out and covered Haku's mouth. "No! No don't talk like that, Haku-chin! You're going to be fine!" Haku was too weak to do anything about Miku's hand so she had to wait until the pretty light blue haired girl removed it herself before she could finish.

"I can feel it… whatever Juon-san did to me, I can feel it… it's not just my body, and it's not just her energies. I don't know what all, but I can feel it. It's taking a lot for me to…" She trailed off a moment and fresh tears appeared in the eyes of the other two. Haku took another deep breath and forced the words out. "I would like… to confess my feelings…"

Luka and Miku blinked and traded looks much as they had done earlier before looking back down at Haku. "Kokuhaku? Why?" Miku asked right on top of Luka's choked out "To who…?"

With an effort Haku forced her red eyes open, and took them both in. They were both so beautiful, so radiant. They looked so worried gazing down at her, but if she didn't make it through this she wanted to remember them just as they were. "Both of you." Miku's free hand went to her mouth and her green eyes widened, and Luka's shoulders tensed up and her hand squeezed Haku's reflexively. Haku kept her gaze on them both at once. "Luka-chin, from the moment I met you you have saved my life in so many ways. You think you have failed me, but what you've really done is allowed me to live, to truly live. What has happened is not your fault. I've been instantly and deeply in love with you from almost the moment we met, even if it took me this long to realize it, to understand my feelings." She smiled as a different kind of tears sprang up in the idol's eyes. "As Miku said once, sometimes people just click together. Love at first sight… I never believed in it before you, Luka-chin. You've made my life better in every way possible, and I love you."

Luka gasped a sob at the raw emotion of the moment, and though they were both adamant that Haku would recover it still came across as final words from a deathbed. Even though none of them were willing to acknowledge it the tone was still in the background of the moment. "I felt the connection too. I've struggled with the worry that I was just being silly or infatuated or unfairly leading you on, but you're just too wonderful. You see things in such a unique way and are so careful of everyone around you, so delicate and precious." She leaned down on impulse in a cascade of pink hair to press her lips to Haku's, tenderly, carefully, but sweetly. A kiss so sweet she wanted to melt against her idol's mouth and stay like that forever. "I love you, Haku-chin." She whispered as she leaned back enough for Haku to look up once more, and the white haired beauty shifted her gaze more to Miku, but still kept Luka in the corner of her vision.

"Miku-chin, you're everything I've ever wished I could have in life. You're vibrant, full of wonder, and gorgeous but still have a will of steel underneath your soft exterior. I've never admired anyone as much as you, and you took me in and helped me, befriended me, and guided me when you had every right to hate me for taking Luka-chin away from you. But instead you stuck with me, and we've bonded, slowly but surely through shared moments. Hibiki-sensei said the same thing you did the other day, but you weren't talking about us. What is right for some isn't necessarily right for all. You've also made my life better in every way possible, and I love you."

Miku squeaked a little as she tried to keep her own tears back, the fingers of the hand not clutching Haku's still covering her mouth in a feminine way, but she lowered the hand to her chest to speak, "You're so smart Haku-chin, I've never known anyone as brilliant as you. You seem to see everything and file it all away without missing a beat. Hojoto-san was right, you're looks and brains both, but so much more. You're brave and resourceful and care so deeply for those important to you." And she leaned down as Luka had except with a fall of light blue twintails, pressing her lips to Haku's in the same gentle tender sweet way, her lips as soft as they'd seemed each time they had almost but not quite kissed in the past. "Of course I love you, Haku-chin."

When they had both leaned back up Haku smiled weakly up at them. "And you love each other, you always have, even before I came in to the picture. Say it." Blue eyes met green and suddenly there was embarrassed flushing. Why get embarrassed now? "Please, I need to see it, to hear it..."

They swallowed hard and hesitated, then Luka shook her head. "Of course you know, Miku-chin. You were there for me when no one else was, you were always with me and helped me through the hardest time in my life. You both say I'm the strong one, but you're my rock, my center, my stability. I regret having made you wait for me the past two years, I hope you can forgive me that, but it didn't change my feelings for you in the slightest. I wouldn't be where I am today without you, and I love you." She choked up, the memories too much, and Miku moved her hand from her chest and took up Luka's free hand with her own.

"Luka-chin you ARE the strong one, you're the epitome of the capable but feminine woman. You never stop even when things get hard. You push forward and you work through it, and you never let anything stop you. You're impressive beyond words and I've never wanted anything more than to be with you, until Haku-chin came into my life. Of course I forgive you. I love you." They leaned forward at the same time, and their kiss was much more firm and hungry than they had given Haku, probably because neither of them were laying on a medical table.

When they leaned back again and looked down at her curiously Haku spared them the need to ask the obvious question of what to do. "I had to be the one to make the confession," She said by way of explanation, "Because you two have to be the ones to make the truly hard decision."

"What can we do that could possibly be harder than what you just did, Haku-chin?" Miku asked incredulously. "Your bravery for doing that is incredible."

Haku shook her head weakly. "No, I have the easy job, the coward's job. All I had to do was bring it out. You two have to decide if it's possible."

"If what's possible?" Luka asked dubiously, her crystal voice carrying a note of worry.

She had thought she was as numb as she could be weakened as she was, but now Haku felt the butterflies invade her stomach once more. _Oh please don't let me falter now…_ she thought. "I was in the mall this morning… and I saw the answer. I saw a possible answer." Their faces were confused again so she explained. "There were two men and a woman at a table together, and they were all holding hands, all three of them. At first I didn't want to look because it was in public, but then I realized how they were each looking at the other two… just like we're looking at each other right now. It didn't matter that some were the same gender, or that there were more than two of them. Miku said sometimes what is right for some isn't for everyone. Hibiki-sensei told me that love is a unique snowflake, different for each person it touches. Gackpo told me to learn to think outside of the norm, and possibilities would open." She was paraphrasing, trying to get it out, but the effect wasn't lost on the other two as their eyes widened in understanding.

"A three person couple…?" Miku asked.

Haku nodded. "You see? You two have to decide, because I am the third person. It was for me to confess, but it is for you two to allow me in, since you were together before I arrived. I had the easy job…"

Luka and Miku suddenly began laughing, their voices ringing through the exam room. It was the laugh of sudden relief, of realizing a situation wasn't as bad as you thought. It was a manic moment and Haku blinked up at them.

"Haku-chin, your ability to be so remarkably brilliant yet downplay yourself at the same time is as incredible as it is annoying." Miku said between giggles.

Luka nodded her agreement. "Neither of us have ever met anyone as amazing or as special as you, Haku-chin. There's no decision to make here, it's obvious."

Miku nodded back. "That's right. If that's what you want, Haku-chin, then that's what we want too."

Haku felt a warmth spread through her entire body, and for the first time all week the emotional pain was completely gone. She sagged with relief, and the other two leaned down to hug her, squeezing them all in together. After a few moments Haku tried to look around. "Where are my things?" she asked.

Luka winced. "Haku-chin… your phone broke. I'm sorry, but it shattered when it hit the ground."

Haku shook her head, "Are you sure you didn't…? I know you hated it…" Luka opened her eyes wide but Miku let out a fit of giggles at the joke, and after a moment Luka smiled. Haku gestured a hand. "What about the bag?"

"It's right here." The idol leaned over to a table and brought it to Haku, who reached into it and slowly extracted the three gold leaf paper wrapped thin boxes. She set one on her tummy, then handed one to each of the other two. They blinked in surprise and lifted the lids, then gasped in astonishment.

"Haku-chin!" Miku exclaimed, lifting the diamond set digital locket out of her box. "It's beautiful! But…"

"Isn't it a bit much…?" Luka finished for her.

Haku narrowed her red eyes. "No, I think it's just right. May I see your phones please?" Miku and Luka produced their phones at the same time, and Haku took them and gestured for Luka to open her locket. The idol did so, her eyes widening.

"Little screens?" She asked in surprise as Miku stretched her torso over the medical table and craned her neck to peer over at the idol's open locket, and then she blinked in surprise down at Haku as she lifted Luka's phone and snapped a picture of the pretty light blue haired girl. Haku giggled at the goofy angle and Miku made a face.

"Haku-chin the lighting in here is terrible." Miku complained and Luka giggled at her.

"It's fine, it's just to show you." She turned Luka's phone upward, then opened the bluetooth pairing screen on it and paired it with the idol's locket, then she downloaded the app to upload the photo. The app showed spaces for which screen had which photo, and she uploaded Miku's surprised looking picture she had just taken to one of them. Miku's surprised face popped up on the left side of Luka's locket, and they both let out an appreciative "Ooooooh." Haku giggled and lifted Miku's phone and snapped a surprise picture of Luka too and repeated the process with Miku's locket. "See? We can all keep the other two right in our hearts this way from now on." She grabbed their hands as they reached for their phones and peered at them. "No pictures of me until I'm not sick anymore." She admonished them, and they laughed.

"Caught in the intent!" Miku giggled, pulling her phone free. "It's fine, I have a couple of pictures of you from your first dance lesson I can use in the meantime." She said, uploading one to the other screen in the locket and showing them. Luka's surprised face on one side, and Haku glaring off to the side in the camera on the other. She giggled and closed the locket and handed it to Haku. "You gave it to me, you have to put it on."

It was an odd angle, and Miku had to lean down so Haku could secure the clasp around her neck. The rose gold heart hung down on her chest and she beamed. Then she sent the picture of Haku in training to Luka, who uploaded it too then also insisted Haku hang it on her. Once that was all done they looked at the unopened box on Haku's tummy. Her iPhone was broken so she couldn't upload anything, so they opened the box for her and hung it around her neck, gently working the chain around to get the clasp in the right place to attach it. "Once we get you a new phone we'll take better pictures, Haku-chin." Luka promised.

"Once we get you an Android!" Miku giggled. They all smiled at each other, the relief between them palpable. It couldn't have gone better. Haku let out a huge yawn.

"Will you both stay with me until I fall asleep again?"

"Until you fall asleep?" Miku asked indignantly.

"We'll stay with you until you wake back up." Luka said fervently.

"And promise me…" She muttered, fighting for a last moment of consciousness, "Promise me that no matter what... happens to me… that you'll always… take care of each other…"

They looked down at her in anguish. Miku bit her lower lip to stop a cry and Luka opened her mouth to object, "Haku-chin, you'll be fine-"

"Promise me…" She interrupted groggily.

They stared at her a moment longer then both nodded. "We promise." They said together.

Haku smiled at them. They leaned in for another group hug, and that was how Haku fell back to sleep, warm and safe and loved. Her last thought before letting sleep claim her was a fervent prayer that she would wake to it again.


	14. Vocaloid Academy Chapter 14

Haku was in and out of wakefulness for the next several days and Luka and Miku were practically beside themselves with worry. They spent the majority of the time at her bedside in the exam room waiting and hoping for her brief bouts of consciousness which never lasted more than a few minutes, perhaps ten at most. Each time they hoped fervently it would be for good when she would wake up and call their names, but each time she fell back asleep. Occasionally she would murmur while she was dreaming, sometimes an audible word or two, but nothing either of them could ever make any sense of. There wasn't much they could do for their snowy white haired beauty but they stayed with her as much as possible, only leaving for brief periods of time to get food or bathe or change clothes, and even then they went in shifts so one of them was always with her.

"At least she still isn't in any pain." Miku said as she worked the soft bristled pearly white brush through Haku's cascading white strands. The doctors tended to Haku's bodily hygiene needs but Luka and Miku insisted on being the ones to care for her hair. Haku's silky smooth locks were as precious to her as theirs was to them, so they worked together to care for it every morning and every evening, and this morning was no exception.

Luka gave a little nod as she held handful of her stands up off the floor for Miku to work at. The exam table wasn't high enough for Haku's knee length hair by a long shot. "I just wish she would wake up."

The idol had said the same thing a dozen times, but then so had Miku herself. She sighed and shook her head as she focused on her task. "It's strange…" she muttered, as much from concentration as from worry. "I knew how I was starting to feel about Haku-chin but I didn't really fully realize just how much until… until I saw her lying there… on the pavement… and didn't know if…."

She couldn't go on but Luka nodded her understanding. "I know. If we had lost her…" she trailed off too.

A throat cleared and the two girls have a little startled squeak. They turned to see who it was, their cheeks flushed with embarrassment. Doctor Hatsune gave a little smile and made a soothing motion with her hands. "I just came to check on her fluids." Miku's mother said as she moved into the room. Her light blue hair done in a tight tail that disappeared under the collar of her lab coat was only a few shades darker than her daughter's. She gave them a funny look out of the corner of her eye as she checked on Haku's IV drip. After a moment she glanced at Luka. "Megurine-san, may I have a few moments alone with my daughter?"

Luka glanced from Mira to Miku and back before nodding. "I was about to go have a bath anyway, since it's my turn after Miku went earlier." She said diplomatically, her crystal voice betraying only a slight hint of concern. She laid Haku's hair along the medical bed and Miku took her place at the bedside to continue brushing it out as the idol walked out with a single backward glance, her own flowing pink hair saying behind her as she left.

Miku kept her eyes on the snowy white river of silky strands while her mother busied herself with the fluid bag. Miku thought she was sensing something unpleasant coming in the way her mother was studiously not looking her way so she did the same keeping her eyes down.

Finally the doctor spoke. "You know you mean the world to me, right?"

Miku blinked at the hair in front of her but gave a small shrug. "Yes?" She tried tentatively.

"And to your father too, though he would never say so of course." Her mother continued.

"I know." Miku said, not able to help being a little embarrassed.

"And we both just want you to be happy above all else." Doctor Hatsune's voice was getting… strained?

Miku glanced up at her mother briefly before casting her eyes back down. "Yes… "

"And that no matter what we'll still care about you and-"

"Mom, what is it?" Miku broke in, the platitudes starting to alarm her a bit.

Her mother took a deep breath and glanced at Miku. "Your father and I have noticed that… well… do you have something that… maybe you want to tell me, Miku? About… about yourself? About you and Megurine-san and Yowane-san?"

"Mom!" Miku half shouted and half moaned in complaint. Her cheeks caught fire as the brush in her hands froze. She looked away, unable to face Mira. After a moment she felt her mother's hand on her shoulder and she tensed up, worried about the reaction she'd get, but Doctor Hatsune's voice grew soft and soothing.

"Miku, you're my only child, the only one your father and I were ever blessed with, and I want the absolute best for you. I promise you, whatever is going on, you can talk to me about it and I will do everything in my power to help you no matter what it is. If it's a Vocaloid problem, I will help as I can. And if it's a matter of a more… personal… nature… well, I give what advice I can. But I promise you I won't be mad at you."

Abruptly Miku turned and flung her arms around her mother's neck, an impulse driving her. As all Vocaloids did she learned to heed her instincts, even if it made her appear fast and impulsive to normal people. But Vocaloids weren't normal people, they did everything fast and impulsively. They were creatures of emotion and instinct.

"Oh mom, I love them." She whispered into her mother's ear. "I love them both, with all my heart. When something is wrong with one of them, it feels like my heart is ripping in two. When they're happy I'm happy, even if I don't have any reason to be or if I was having a bad day. My first thoughts when I wake up are of them, my last thoughts before sleep are of them, and my dreams are filled with them."

Doctor Hatsune cradled her daughter in a maternal way, and Miku felt herself warming inside. She hadn't realized how much worry she had had over this revelation to her parents. It was a problem Luka and Haku wouldn't have to deal with, but she did, and it had been gnawing at her on some level. But mothers were extremely perceptive about their children, and doctors were perceptive by nature, so very little escaped Hatsune Mira's attention. She had seen the way her daughter behaved regarding the other two Vocaloids, and she had wanted to ask, even if it might not have been strictly proper.

"Miku, if that's how you feel, then that's how you feel, and I will support you. I want you to follow what makes you happy, but please be careful."

Miku leaned back from her mother for a moment to look her in the eye. "What do you mean?"

Doctor Hatsune let out a little sigh and her head canted to the side a bit. "When I was in med school there were three people in the class that everyone knew where in a… special relationship, like the one you're talking about. They were inseparable, always together, took all the same subjects, did all their work together, ate together, lived together, everything. One day we heard a screaming match through the door of an empty classroom, and…" She paused a moment before sighing again. "The following day in class there were only two of them at their desk. No one wanted to ask, but they looked miserable. It turned out that one of them didn't do so well sharing and had broken their triangle. That person was never seen in class again, and the other two were never quite the same after that." Miku had a stricken look on her face as she thought about how horrible that would be if it happened to them, but her mother gripped her arms. "Miku, I'm not saying I think that will happen here with you girls, I just want you to be careful okay?"

She swallowed and nodded, and it took the pretty light blue haired girl a moment before she thought she could trust her voice. "Then you don't… you don't think it's bad or dirty or something? Because there's three of us, and because we're all girls…?"

Her mother smiled and shook her head. "No dear, you're Vocaloids. The 'norm' doesn't apply to you. In point of fact I'm sure your father would be quick to point out the benefits of it."

"Benefits? What benefits?"

"That you can be happy with someone inside our organization without risk of accidentally revealing it to an outside loved one of course!" The doctor gave a soft little laugh. "Your family is all here, after all, and now so are they."

Miku smiled tremulously but she was relieved, a weight off her shoulders she hadn't known was there. "Thanks mom. And… if you can… thank daddy for me too…? If he wouldn't feel comfortable talking directly to me about it, I don't want to push it on him…"

Mira patted Miku's shoulder before moving off to continue checking over Haku. "I'm sure he knows it Miku. He's a very perceptive man. Though…" She ran an eye over Haku's prone form then glanced toward the door where Luka had disappeared. "Megurine-san and Yowane-san are very wonderful girls, but he may approach them."

Miku blinked in surprise, her heart leaping into her throat for a second. "What? Why?"

The doctor let out another little laugh as she worked. "He's a father, and you're his little girl. He has to look out for you after all."

Miku blinked at that a for a moment or two, not entirely sure what to say. She finally just picked up Haku's hair brush once more to finish working on the silky white strands. After a awhile Luka came back, her hair piled on her head with a towel wrapped around it and dressed for the day in a simple yet well cut pair of black designer leggings and a white and pink silk blouse, and Miku smirked at her. She'd managed to turn Haku onto the silk blouses, and it seemed Luka was picking it up now, though she had no idea when the idol had gone and gotten it. Then she noticed the pink haired beauty had her arms laden with sweet bean buns and juice boxes and her smirk turned into a frown, to which Luka responded with an apologetic but helpless shrug.

"Mom! Can't daddy do SOMEthing about our crappy cafeteria?!"

Mira laughed aloud this time and just shook her head as she finished up her checks and started to walk out, but as she passed the idol Luka put a hand on her arm to stop her. She glanced at Haku then back with a concerned look. "Should she really have been asleep this long?"

Doctor Hatsune sighed and shook her head. "I don't know, Megurine-san. I've never seen this happen to a Vocaloid before. All I can say is that whatever is happening to her body, it will take time to run it's course." She glanced at Miku finishing up with Haku's hair and turned back, moving a little closer and whispering for Luka's ear alone. "Take care of them, Megurine-san. Both of them."

Luka blinked at the knowing look in the doctor's eye before the older woman brushed past and out of the exam room. She turned to set the buns and juice down on a table as Miku walked over and she glanced out the exam room's observation window to make sure the doctor was gone before asking. "What was that about?"

For answer Miku slipped her arms around the idol's waist and leaned up to the taller girl to press their lips together. Luka was a little surprised as it had only been a few days since this had become okay with them and Haku, but it was a pleasant surprise and she leaned into the kiss. So sweet, so tender, so delicate, and full of promises for someday soon. They both let out little sighs when they had to break it to breathe and Miku smiled up at Luka. "My mom wanted to talk to me about you and Haku-chin." Luka blinked at that and felt Miku squeeze her around the middle tighter. "It's okay, she just wanted to make sure we were being careful…" She said it in an inclusive way, not wanting to alarm the other girl.

"Careful?" Luka asked, a dubious look on her pretty face, but Miku giggled and pressed another kiss to her lips.

This one lasted longer than the first, their arms tightening around the other with their desire and their tongues sliding together for a moment before Miku leaned back to another chorus of little gaps. She reached up and took hold of the fold in the towel on Luka's head and pulled it free letting her damp pink hair flow down her back, then she pushed the idol gently onto a chair and took up her sparkly black hairbrush. "She knows about us and about Haku-chin." Luka gave a start but Miku held her in place by her hair as she started to slide the soft bristles through it as carefully as she had done with Haku's. "It's okay, don't worry. She doesn't have a problem with it. Like I said, she just wants to make sure we're being careful with each other." Again not exactly the wording, but Miku didn't see a point needlessly worrying Luka.

For Luka's part she gave a slow nod and then gradually relaxed back into the chair as the bristles slowly moved over her head. Miku felt warm all over inside at the way things were turning out, but she still worried for Haku, hoping she would wake up soon. _No, she will wake up soon. She will!_ She forced herself to think. She was worried for Luka too and how hard the idol was still taking this. She didn't think the pink haired beauty would be completely okay again until after Haku got better. _Come to think of it…_ Miku said squeezing her eyes shut for a moment as a tear ran from the corner of one eye, _I don't think I will be either._

Luka looked up as she felt the single tear hit her scalp and reached up to brush at the pretty blue haired girl's cheek. She didn't ask what was wrong, she already knew. Miku smiled down at her trying to keep the sadness out of it. They knew they were the only things keeping the other going at the moment. So they sat there in Haku's exam room, brushing out each other's hair and then sharing their meager meal of sweet bean buns and juice boxes, not that they would have had a lot of appetite for more even if there were more to be had right that moment and neither wanted to leave long enough to go out to get something better. Once both things were done they sat in silence for a little while and Miku fiddled with her rose gold and diamond heart set digital locket Haku had given her. Luka watched her, the idol's own locket dangling down the center of her chest.

Haku let out a cry as she started awake. "Lu… Luka-chin…? Miku-chin?" Haku's weak cry brought both their heads up instantly and like a flash they were at Haku's bedside.

"We're here, Haku-chin." Luka said her crystal voice laden with concern. They both took up one of Haku's hands in theirs and squeezed reassuringly.

"She… she's coming…" Haku muttered thickly, her voice normally as silvery in tone as her hair was in color, like a water drop in a pond, was now soft and strained.

The other two girls looked at each other and Miku knew the worry on her own face was a reflection of what she saw in Luka's. "Who's coming, Haku-chin?" She asked looking back down.

"Ju… Juon Kiku…" Haku panted, her red eyes fluttering open then closed repeatedly as though she were fighting for consciousness every moment. "She's angry… and she's coming… for me…"

"We won't let her have you, Haku-chin." Luka said, choking up a little bit and rubbing Haku's arm with her other hand. "You're safe, I promise you. I won't fail you again, I swear it!" Her crystal voice was hard as diamonds, as fierce as a predator on the hunt.

Haku almost seemed like she was going to drift off again but her red eyes snapped back open again. "Bring me… terminal…"

Miku turned and dashed down the hall to one of the doctors' offices. No one was there so she grabbed a laptop off a table and rushed it back. By the time she got back it looked like Haku was gone again, but when she hesitantly set it in Haku's lap her eyes snapped back open once more. "Help me…" she muttered and flexed her back weakly trying to sit up. Luka scooped her shoulders and lifted her upright and Miku grabbed a few of the pillows for the bed and stuffed them behind Haku to prop her there. Haku's red eyes were straining as she forced them to stay open and she reached for the keyboard with an effort, but the moment her hands reached the keys her fingers began to fly. Luka gaped at the screen and Miku's green eyes widened in surprise. She had seen Haku work a terminal before and knew she was impressive, but this… Windows opened and flashed by and went away again in a blink. Dark consoles with characters scrolling passed out of sight bloomed, ran through code, and disappeared just as quickly. It was like an electronic light show as Haku swiftly and deftly hacked into whatever systems she was after.

"Haku-chin… what are you…" Luka asked on the verge of speechlessness, but Haku didn't reply as her fingers continued to blur over the keys and Miku realized she didn't have the attention span let alone the time to answer questions. She was fighting unconsciousness to do this, fighting against her body trying to drag her back under. Finally after long minutes Haku's fingers began to slow and finally stop and the snowy white haired beauty sagged back against the pillows. "You…" She breathed, barely audible as her eyes began to slide closed again. "You have… to… prepare… go… please…" And then she was gone again. Miku and Luka stared at each other in shock, eyes wide and emotions running high. Prepare? What did she mean? As one they glanced at the laptop screen but it was blank again, Haku had closed out of whatever she had been doing. Then they looked down at the sleeping girl.

"Do you… think she was dreaming…?" Luka asked tentatively.

Miku was a longer moment in answering. "She sounded sure… she believed it…" More glances exchanged and she added "Do you think… we should…?" They stared at each other for a couple of intense moments of indecision, but they both knew they would do anything Haku asked, even if she was dreaming. Thankfully however they were spared the need to make take that particular leap.

"What is the meaning of this?" Director Hatsune's booming bass voice echoed through the room as he swept in with several of the directors on his heels. "We just received word of a network attack from a terminal IP in this area but only you girls are in here! What is going on?"

They were both taken slightly aback with the speed and seriousness of the response but Luka recovered quickly, stepping in with her usual assertive grace. "Director Hatsune, we have reason to believe our Compound will be coming under attack very shortly."

There were mutters from the directors and Miku's father narrowed his eyes, an imposing visage with his square angular jaw and teal military crew cut. "An attack? From where? Of what sort?"

The girls exchanged glances but had no answer to give. "We're not entirely sure, but we think Juon Kiku is behind it."

"We had to set preparations in motion." Miku said including them in Haku's doings. She didn't think they would believe her if she told them the truth anyway, that Haku had woken up long enough to give an unprovable warning before hacking the network and falling asleep again, but even that aside she was her girlfriend now, as was Luka. Couples were supposed to stand together for good or ill weren't they? It felt right, and she could tell by the light in Luka's determined blue eyes that she felt the same way.

"Be that as it may," Director Hatsune said gruffly, "If there was an issue such as this your first recourse should have been to report it, not to take matters into your own hands."

"There's no time!" Luka said harshly, her crystal voice taking on that diamond hardness again. "It could happen any minute and we have to get everything ready!"

The directors all narrowed their eyes at her but she stared back, the determined look in her eyes giving way to a defiant glare, and finally Miku's father nodded. "Very well, but we will discuss this further afterward." With that they turned to go make preparations.

As soon as they were out of eye and ear shot Miku threw her arms around Luka, but no faster than the idol did her. They clung tightly to each other for long moments before Miku pulled away finally. She felt a hundred kinds of worry and concern running through her but she knew she could get through it with Luka by her side. If only Haku were awake; they were like a tripod with a broken leg. Neither of them were complete without her.

… … … … …

As it turned out Haku had thought of just about everything. Within a couple of hours work crews began showing up to "fulfill construction and installation orders." They all had paperwork with the authorizations of both Director Hatsune as well as Finance Director Hijime. The look on Miku's father's face as everyone began showing up with these orders was that of a thunderhead on the verge of releasing a storm, but according to the paperwork that each crew presented their orders had all been paid for in advance. One look at the determined look on his two most powerful Vocaloid's faces and he allowed it, but he didn't look happy about it.

The crews were from a dozen different types of contracting companies, from basic construction workers for additions of walkway ramps around the edges of the compound to electricians to string cabling through the walls and even security personnel who were to set up cameras around the perimeter for monitoring the compound's outer walls. There was a specialized security man who was to bring in great slabs of steel to set up security choke points within the building itself, and the metal doors proved surprisingly simple to install. There was even a guy in a dark trench coat and glasses who spoke to no one after showing up in a completely plain equipment van with all tinted windows and pulled straight into the garage before securing it. No one ever saw him actually do anything but he was reported in dozens of places throughout the entire rest of the day before finally departing some fourteen hours after showing up.

Luka found herself in the midst of a flurry of workers and equipment as things got done around the compound faster and more furiously than she had ever suspected possible from construction contractors. She had no idea what she was supposed to be doing and the lack of knowing bothered her on some fundamental level; she was used to being a woman of decisive action. Miku seemed to be at just as much of a loss as she was, but after a time they spotted some of the other Vocaloids milling about with just as much of a confused look on their faces as the two of them had, and that's when it occurred to Luka.

"Come on, Miku-chin, let's go try to get the the others ready."

The pretty blue haired girl nodded at the idea and they began to circle amongst everyone they could find, seasoned Vocaloids and trainees alike, letting them know what was happening and making suggestions of what they could be doing to get ready. Gackpo picked up on it right away and began to help, circling amongst everyone, and even Mokoto was seen moving about the less experienced of them giving last minute field instructions and tips for conducting yourself without losing your calm and control. Once everyone had been alerted Luka had the additional thought of organizing and pairing people off into sparring groups, helping with the last minute training that Mokoto was giving. Most of the afternoon was spent in that, but trying to get everyone ready for an indeterminate event was not an easy thing to do. All they could think of was prepare for what they knew about and try to come up with eventualities from theory or recent activity they had observed on the part of the souldrinkers in the field.

Even with all the hustle and bustle going on Luka caught Miku aside at one point. "One of us needs to go check on Haku-chin periodically." She said, and Miku gave an immediate nod of agreement.

"I'll go now." She said and turned to head off but Luka caught her wrist as she did.

"Go ahead, it's just about half past the hour. You go every half past, and I'll go every hour on the hour." Another nod and the light blue haired girl was dashing off with a flutter of twintails streaming behind her.

After that Luka decided to change. She headed back to her room and exchanged her silk blouse for a more form fitting dark red long sleeved turtleneck because of the cold weather and skintight leather pants, then pulled on her knee high stiletto boots that laced up the sides. She took out the hard plastic case that held the diamond studded sleek black designer sunglasses that Haku had given her and slid them on. Then in a last impulsive touch she ducked into Haku's room and dug through her ribbons, finding a red and black one which she tied around her high ponytail in a sort of homage to the white haired girl before heading back outside. She had to wind her way through the halls cluttered with construction material for the inner security doors but it didn't take her very long.

Haku never woke back up that day, at least not while either she or Miku were down there with her checking on her. Luka had a hollow pit in her stomach from worry over her mysterious snowy haired beauty, but she didn't have time to dwell on it. She wanted more than anything to have Haku wake up for good, to hold her in her arms and kiss her and tell her how much she loved her as she had had the chance to do with Miku these past days, but she had to keep helping with the preparations for this attack that was coming. She just wished she had some idea of what to expect.

Miku got one look at Luka's outfit and shortly thereafter disappeared to change as well. When she emerged once more from her room she was wearing something similar, only in a midnight blue sweater and her boots didn't lace up the side and weren't quite knee high. She also wore the dark blue and black ribbons she had gotten from Haku days ago holding her two ponytails, but she had them pulled back at the nape of her neck split to either side to trail down over her shoulder blades as opposed to pulled off the sides of her head. She smiled up at Luka as she came over to her. "I thought maybe you were onto something there with the combat ready look, so I copied you. I hope you don't mind?"

Luka smiled at her and squeezed her hand briefly. "Not at all."

She lost track of all time as the preparations and construction were completed and eventually found that everyone was departing the compound. The only sense of passing time she had was when her timer on her phone would go off to signify her turn to go check on Haku. She always stayed for five or ten minutes just gazing down at her sleeping face. She looked so pretty slumbering there even with her obvious discomfort. Haku had on basic jeans and a white t-shirt, the same outfit she'd worn the first day she was at the Compound for simplicity's sake of treating her, but she also had some metallic silver ribbons tied to her upper arms and legs that dangled off of her in a twisting curl. Miku's work, Luka was sure of that. She felt the urge to cry each time she went down but always stamped it out. It wasn't the time for tears. The last thing before each visit she would press her lips against Haku's forehead, smoothing her white bangs back to place the kiss before going back to the preparations.

… … … … …

"Do you truly think you can destroy them with such a token force?" The man's voice carried from the darkness of the abandoned warehouse as Kiku moved through that ranks of souldrinkers arrayed before them. She had double the total number of the Vocaloids and knew she could accomplish what she was after. And if she needed more… well, she could attain a few from her enemy's ranks while she was there if need be. A souldrinker could not create another souldrinker, not on purpose anyway, not a real one, but she could.

"I do not need to destroy them, I just need to hurt them, to shake them up." She replied mildly, her low dark voice a neutral deadpan.

The man's voice grew annoyed however. She couldn't see him, but she wasn't looking either. "Then what is the point of this attack? To satisfy a personal vendetta? Can you truly be so pretty as that?"

The disgust in his voice was plain but she focused on inspecting her force. She had been starving these souldrinkers for days to get them ready for this. A souldrinker looked and acted like everyone else most of their time, but when it didn't feed for too long instinct took over and the need to satisfy hunger became almost all it could think about. Well, for most of them. A select few displayed more intelligence than others even while hungry. The need for further experimentation was clear.

"That is but one piece of the larger picture." She responded to the voice in the darkness. Unlike him she saw the need for careful movement and consideration of one's plans. He always wanted everything immediately and never seemed to understand the little things like intervening steps or unexpected setbacks. He saw them as weakness, as failures, and couldn't understand why things never happened on grand scales the moment he wanted them to. "This is but a first step, Shion-san. You can't expect everything all at once."

"And why not? You could easily take twice this number and wipe them out. Three times this. Why do you not?"

"To what end?" She demanded of the darkness as she continued her inspections. "Assuming we took such a course, and I brought several times their number in at once, each of them can only have their energy siphoned by one of our children. What do you think would happen with a hundred of them milling about in a tight confined space on the verge of starvation when their food supply runs out?" Kiku scoffed loudly to show what she thought of that notion. "This way we will do considerable damage to our enemy and avert total disaster. They will be softened up for a future attack, and we attain the upper hand."

"Besides," came another voice from the shadows, a female voice not quite so low as Kiku's, "The larger the force the more chance of collateral damage in the surrounding area, and that would be counterproductive to our goal of staying hidden."

The man's voice was somewhere between annoyance and… not "fear" exactly, but concerned certainly. "What are you doing here? I thought the master had yet to put anyone else in play." He said with significance.

The woman sounded amused when she replied, as though this entire situation held no end of hilarity for her, but it sounded forced to Kiku. "The master doesn't tell us each every detail, as you should well know. I am here to ensure you do not end up shining an unwanted light into our darkness for all to see. We are not yet ready to reveal ourselves, and this risks it."

"I am not the one risking anything, and the master well knows that." The man's voice was beginning to shift from annoyed to angry. "Juon-san has some vendetta she is trying to settle."

"You are supporting it," The woman replied. "Is that not the same thing? You do not stop Juon-san, thus you are allowing it."

"He could not stop me even if he wished to." Kiku interjected mildly into the exchange. She had seen a flash of bandage here and there in the shadows as he circled her, but she had seen nothing of the woman thus far and could only guess at her identity.

"Are you so sure of that?" His voice sounded even more dangerous than he had previously, and for the briefest of moments Kiku's skin prickled in anticipation, the way it might form an instinctual reaction the moment before touching something that would burn right before the actual touch. She tensed all over for just the briefest second, but no rebuke came and she moved on with her inspection without rising to the bait in response. After enough time went by that Kiku didn't answer he spoke again, "I still do not believe this plan of yours is conducive to the master's overall goals. How does this help those aims?"

"I do not have time to spell everything out for you, Shion-san." Kiku replied in annoyance. "I need to be getting ready."

"You had better find time or I will end this here and now." He practically growled.

"It seems a bit late for that," The woman's voice came from the shadows once more, from the same direction. Either she was overly confident or completely unconcerned for what the other two of them represented. "The forces are assembled and the final phase is underway. Your sudden decisiveness comes too late, Shion-san. You will simply have to play damage control after the fact I'm afraid."

"Damage control?" He repeated angrily. "That is not acceptable."

"It will have to be. You are as aware as I that the master has ordered that we not interfere with each other once we have begun a course of action. Your opportunity to alter events was in the discussion before hand."

Kiku was going to say something but right that moment she felt something, an awareness at the edges of her consciousness, a feather light touch on the recesses of her mind. She half turned around as though she could see Haku standing there watching her, but she knew she would see only what she did see, which was rank upon rank of souldrinkers and a dark warehouse. "Yowane-san…?" She whispered so lightly no one would have heard more than a step or two away from her. Only a brief moment of awareness, a fraction of a fraction of a second, and then it was gone. She knew. Haku knew Kiku was coming. That was… inconvenient. She could warn someone, do something about it. Kiku wondered if she should tell the others, mulling that possibility around in her mind before finally rejecting it. If she did and things went badly she would be blamed. If she didn't and they went badly it might reflect poorly on her but she would not be blamed directly, only scolded again and she didn't care about that. Besides, their numbers should more than make up the lack.

Kiku went back to preparing, listening with only part of her attention as the other two continued on. She couldn't help reaching out with her mind though, trying to feel for Haku's consciousness again, staining for it, yearning for it. Nothing. She couldn't find her, but she did keep trying.

… … … … …

As the day wore on tensions increased throughout the Vocaloid Compound with every hour that stretched on with no sign of any attack. Director Hatsune was strolling along the roof and walls where every B Rank Vocaloid or stronger was stationed around the perimeter keeping a watch for anything out of the ordinary, though perhaps stalking was the better word for it. Had he been a cat Luka thought he would be lashing his tail as he stopped to exchange a curt word with each of them to ask if they had seen anything. It wasn't a huge number, they weren't a huge organization after all, they had to be careful in their recruiting to avoid attention, but the dozen or so people on the roof would all do what they could. It was a whole hour after full dark had fallen, two since the director had assigned stations to everyone to watch for the attack, and he made it clear he wasn't convinced one was coming. Luka and Miku however had complete faith in their white haired beauty laying in bed below, and they said it was coming so he in turn was acting on his faith in his two top Vocaloids.

Luka yearned to go below and check on Haku but once positions had been assigned it couldn't have been excused. The attack could come at literally any moment and they had to stand their ground. She craned her neck to look across the rooftop at Miku on the other side of the building. Whether instinct or her own anxiety spiking at the same time, either way the pretty blue haired girl turned to look at her at the same exact moment. Blue eyes met green, and they each gave the other a smile of encouragement. They had managed to sequester themselves in Miku's room briefly earlier for a kiss before taking their positions, for a hug of support in a private moment. They hadn't said anything, they hadn't needed to, their eyes had done all the talking. Each knew if this was a real fight there might be bad things to come, and they were worried for each other as much as they were for Haku lying below, but they were Vocaloids, their entire lives were dangerous. But standing there now looking at one of the two people she loved most in the world, Luka wondered if maybe she should have said something after all.

They had to be on opposite sides of the rooftops because they were the strongest. Director Hatsune had arrayed everyone like that to cover as many weak points as possible since they didn't know what direction to expect the attack from. If it was a force of Souldrinkers they could easily handle a dozen or two dozen from the tops of the wall and roof alone, but if Kiku showed up, or any others like her, it could be troublesome. So every possible precaution had been taken, but it was still all blind guesswork.

Director Hatsune moved up beside Luka and stared out over the edge of the rooftop for a few moments. From her angle at the southeastern corner she could monitor two walls at once while Miku could watch the other two from the northwestern corner. Before her a tangle of streets and warren of alleyways seemed to spider web out from her in a direction that would lead eventually to the strip mall she had first taken Haku to, and a little beyond that to Marajin. The good memories were sprinkled through the stressful and anxious last month and she tried to hold on to those, to keep them foremost in her mind. A Vocaloid operated on instinct and emotion after all, and memories helped that.

"Be honest with me, Megurine-san." Director Hatsune said in a low voice as he walked up to her. Well, low for his deep bass anyway, but even so she doubted it would have been heard more than a few feet away. "Do you honestly believe an attack is coming?"

She didn't know how to answer that. She didn't doubt Haku had believed what she said when she woke up long enough to give her warning, but she couldn't deny the possibility that the exotic red eyed girl had been delirious in some way from her ordeal. But in her heart she knew for a certainty that she could not doubt Haku, not even to the degree of casting the shadow of doubt in a response like this. So what she said aloud was, "I have faith."

Director Hatsune was silent for a moment or two then asked, "Faith in Yowane-san?" She looked up at him in surprise and the smallest of small smirks tugged at the very tip corner of one side of his lips, but for so stoic a man as he it was the same as a guffaw from someone else. He glanced at her out of the corner of his eye before going back to studying the streets around them. "I am a busy man, but I am not blind. And even beyond that, I can see how you look at her. How you both look at her." He amended, and it was clear he was referring to his daughter.

Another moment of silence descended between them there on the rooftop in the dark of night for a minute, and even though they were surrounded by other Vocaloids with none in earshot of their quietly pitched voices and the darkness for cover it felt as though they were alone. Luka could feel he was steeling himself to say more, so she waited for it, not wanting to disrupt him in this. It was going to be about her and Miku, and it was going to be important. Then he continued, and she was proven correct.

"Megurine-san, I trust my daughter implicitly. I have done my utmost, as has her mother, to impart our values upon her and raise her to be the woman she has grown into today. I want nothing less than the absolute best for her in all things." He paused a moment as though carefully considering his next words, and when they came she felt her heart skip a beat. "You are the best in a number of ways. I had never considered she would find herself involved with another woman, let alone two, but I have known you for some time. You are at the top of the music world, you are the strongest of our Vocaloids, and you have a will like the hardest diamond. I find that though I had never considered the possibility of her being with another woman that I am not opposed to it, so long as her mate is worthy of her and equal to the task of handling her. Miku is like a force of nature hidden from view by a thin soft curtain. You must be her mountain, Megurine-san, the anchor in her storm." He paused a moment and closed his eyes. "I do not know if Yowane-san is up to it, I have not known her long, but I believe you are."

"Haku-chin is up to it." Luka whispered trying not to tear up, just loud enough that he could hear "If I am Miku-chin's anchor, Haku-chin is the chain. She bridges the ground with the sky in us and keeps us both from drifting too far."

Miku's father gave a curt nod of acceptance. "Very well. As I said, I trust my daughter implicitly, and I trust you from what I know of you. If this is how it is, then… you have my blessing. All three of you have it."

"Thank you, sir." Luka said, and then a silent tear did fall from one eye, but she didn't cry. She had no parents to answer to, no family left to give advice or to go to about her feelings. But now, in some small way, she almost felt as though she had been accepted into one.

Director Hatsune finally opened his eyes and looked down at Luka and held up one finger. "But please be aware. I will be watching. Nothing is more important to me than her well being. Nothing."

Luka swallowed and nodded, and didn't reply to that. There was none she could possibly give to such a statement, and he seemed to expect none. With that he turned and began to stride away. Her head turned to watch him go, her flowing pink ponytail streaming down her back shifting as she turned her head to watch him go. As she did she caught a glance of Miku over her shoulder watching them. She shouldn't have been, she should have been watching her side. Instinct again, impulse. Luka indicated the director with a small nod of her head at his back as he went, and then offered a warm smile to the blue haired girl. Miku's return smile was full of relief and wondrous wide green eyes. She understood, and it made her happy to know it.

Suddenly a cry was raised by a girl a few people down from Luka. "Souldrinkers!"

A murmur swept through the Vocaloids on the rooftop and Luka whipped her head around with a flash of pink ponytail to stare toward the south side. There were a dozen or more of them, streaming out from the mouth of alleyways across the street, all with swirling black orbs for eyes and complexions so pale their faces were almost white. At the same moment as the first girl spoke she heard Gackpo to her other side raise the same cry. "Souldrinkers!" She whipped her head around that direction as well to see the same thing happening on the east side of the building. What's more she could hear the cry being raised across the building as well from Miku's sides, from many voices now. "Souldrinkers!" "Here too!" "This side too!" There had to be half a dozen or more on each side of the building, all streaming up to the walls all at once. They were surrounded.

Abruptly an alarm began to sound which made most everyone on the rooftop jump in surprise with only a few exceptions; Director Hatsune didn't, Luka didn't, Gackpo down the line didn't. Miku blushed in embarrassment and tried to pretend like she hadn't but Luka had seen her try to climb out of her skin. If they didn't have enemies all around it might have been funny, especially the look on the pretty twintailed girl's face afterward, all red and squinty eyed trying not to be noticed. As it was Luka turned to stare off the rooftop.

Abruptly the alarm ended as the pale creatures below began to rush the Compound's walls, but even as they did a series of loud bangs began going off in succession all the way around the building. Luka wasn't the only one to lean over the edge of the roof to try to see what was going on. The widows all along the ground floor had giant metal security reinforcements dropping into place behind the glass. Even if the souldrinkers tried to break in they wouldn't get far. The doors along the building were all security chipped for entrance already so that really only left the front courtyard for a potential weak point.

"Haku-chin ordered all of this…" Miku whispered in surprise, and Luka turned back to see the other girl had moved up behind her. "She knew this was coming, somehow she knew." She looked up at her father. "Why didn't we have security measures like this before now, daddy?"

Director Hatsune remained silent watching the forces down below. He didn't seem likely to answer and after a moment Miku turned her curious bewildered green eyes on the idol, but Luka had no answer. She looked back down too before adding her own thought, "What I want to know is, how did Haku-chin know Juon Kiku was coming?" Luka asked aloud. "And how did Juon-san know where to find Haku-chin? Where to find us?"

No answers were forthcoming so all they could do was wait. The creatures below milled about unable to get into the Compound but they could either see or sense potential prey above them. Souldrinkers weren't very smart when they needed to feed and these seemed ravenous, snarling and snapping viciously both up at those on the roof as well as at each other when they got too close. A few however began to show signs of intelligent thinking, pushing objects up against the wall like trash cans as though go get height for climbing. Luka shared a look with Miku and her father at that. This was not typical behavior, like how the park had been irregular.

As they watched the level of aggression in the creatures steadily began to mount as their inability to reach their meals continued and the mass of pale skinned black eyed men and women below started venting their frustrations on each other and on the building. At first they simply pounded on the walls with their fists or knocked things over in the courtyard below, but after a time it became worse yet. Blood smeared on walls where hands and knuckles cut from slamming to hard into unyielding rock siding, bushes and trash cans were smashed to the ground and torn apart, and they even managed to put a large dent in the outer garage door by hurling themselves against it bodily. Sounds of shattered glass pierced the air several times as widows were broken but the metal security sheets seemed to be holding.

"Shouldn't we do something…?" Miku asked tentatively.

"At the moment they have the upper hand." Director Hatsune said. "They can't come up, but neither can we go down. Our defensive position up here is also our trap. We're surrounded; if we attempt to leave they'll be on us as we come out one by one, but we cannot stay holed up forever. Either we'll run out of supplies or they'll eventually force a way in. All they need do is keep us pinned and wait us out."

"Can't we attack from the rooftop?" Luka asked the obvious question, and was surprised when the director shook his head.

"There are dozens of them down there, Megurine-san. I'm hesitant to expend our strength before we know what's going on."

"What do you mean what's going on?"

"This is far more orchestrated than typical souldrinker activity. I for one would like some answers and to take a minute to assess the situation before we just begin throwing away our moment of reprieve."

Luka narrowed her blue eyes slightly. Something about this wasn't adding up in her mind but she couldn't quite put her finger on it. She glanced at Miku but the pretty twintailed girl was just nodding along with her father accepting evening he said. Director Hatsune had always seemed hard as nails and larger than life to her before, but now Luka thought he was behaving oddly. This sort of hesitation was not something she would have ever expected from him but she couldn't see why he was holding back now in such a crucial moment. Miku was so defensive about her family she was hesitant to say anything. Luka wished Haku were here. Her snowy haired beauty was so brilliant, if anyone could puzzle it out it would be her.

There was a loud crack and the sound of wood creaking alarmingly brought their heads around to look down at the courtyard below them. Several of the souldrinkers had levered some bit of metal pole that looked as if it had once belonged to a street sign in between the slats of the front entry hall doors and were using it like a giant crowbar, pushing and pulling back and forth and causing the massive heavy oaken doors to let out splintering sounds occasionally with the attempted forced entry. Luka turned to look back at the two Hatsune family members beside her.

"I'm going down there. If nothing else to keep them from breaching the front doors."

"I thought I made it clear I wanted to wait." The director's voice lowered dangerously. "Are you disobeying an order?"

"No daddy! She's not!" Miku hurried to object on Luka's behalf, but the idol found herself shaking her head just as quickly. She couldn't fathom why she was so quick to go back on her desire but… she hardened her resolve and tried again.

"I just thought to keep them from getting inside the Compound while you found out what was going on." She couldn't keep her crystal voice from gaining higher pitch toward the end, as though she were making a request. Why should she have to make that a request? The director opened his mouth to reply to that but never got the chance.

"Vocaloids!" Came a shout from below, a deep darkly beautiful voice that Luka recognized instantly even before her head whipped around to the side to see Juon Kiku approaching the front gates just outside the courtyard. She was yelling up at the roof but didn't seem to have any specific target in mind for her address. "I will give you ten minutes to release Yowane Haku to me before I have my children force their way into your little base and take her by force!"


	15. Vocaloid Academy Chapter 15

**AUTHOR NOTE:** Hey guys, **Yuri** warning for this chapter! Things get **NSFW** later in this chapter, and for anyone not reading for that and want to skip it, it starts about halfway in and is super obvious when it gets going, but there's no more plot to this chapter once it does. Anyone wanting to skip that part can safely stop reading once it begins and not miss anything else! Just wanted to give a heads up!

Also, thanks for all the reviews and support, it really makes me happy to know my story is being enjoyed! I know this is a super long Fanfic already but I still have a ton planned, so stay tuned! Hehe! ^.^

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"Vocaloids!" Came a shout from below, a deep darkly beautiful voice that Luka recognized instantly even before her head whipped around to the side to see Juon Kiku approaching the front gates just outside the courtyard. She was yelling up at the roof but didn't seem to have any specific target in mind for her address. "I will give you ten minutes to release Yowane Haku to me before I have my children force their way into your little base and take her by force!"

Miku threw herself against the handrail and screamed down at the woman wearing a voluminous blood red dress with black lace and trimming, "Why do you want her?!" Her father put a hand on her shoulder and attempted to urge her back from the railing a bit but Miku rolled her shoulders at the touch refusing to be dissuaded. Luka knew how she felt, she wanted answers too.

"Yowane-san is mine!" Kiku called back to them swiping at the air in front of her. "I told you before, and you refused to listen! I told you there would be consequences if you did not yield her, and still you did not heed me. Give her to me! NOW!" The last word was a yell and a dark red sonic boom ripped from her to slam into the front doors of the Compound that the souldrinkers were working on. Their improvised street pole pry bar groaned as it bent then snapped in two and several of the creatures working it were blasted against the heavy oaken doors which creaked under the impact but nothing more. The almost casually offhanded way the energy wave hit the creatures made all of the less strong of the Vocaloids on the roof shift about uneasily, nervousness and worry so palpable in the air Luka thought she could taste it.

Whatever combination of extreme worry over Haku's condition and weeks of emotional upheaval topped by a brief few moments of hope and relief before the white haired girl became sick suddenly boiled over inside of Luka. She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment as though trying to reign her temper in but her lips would have none of it. "You can't have her!" She shouted over the edge of the rooftop, pressing forward much as Miku was. "I told you before, you can't have her! Not while I'm still standing!"

"That's right!" Miku shouted as well, her chime like voice nearly a shriek. "Not while we're standing!"

Luka felt the director tugging at her shoulder, one hand on either girl as he pulled them back gently then stepped up to the rail. "What will you do if we give her to you, Juon-san?"

"What?!" Luka screamed, not able to believe what she was hearing. "You can't!"

"Daddy no!" Miku yelled right on top of her.

"Relax." He said in a low voice that wouldn't carry off the rooftop. "I have no intention of yielding Yowane-san to an enemy. I'm just trying to get information, and buy time." Luka thought her heart was going to ram it's way free of her chest the way it was pounding from her scare. For a moment he really hadn't seemed like he was bluffing, whatever he said. Maybe she was just being paranoid… but Miku was giving her father a strange look as well.

"I will take her and I will depart without further contention on my part." Kiku said blandly, or as blandly as you could sound shouting up to a rooftop. "You have seven minutes."

"There is no way I'm giving Haku-chin over to that… woman!" The ferocity in Luka's crystalline voice startled even herself, but Miku's green eyes were wide as though she were seeing the idol in a new light, and even the Director had an appraising cast to his gaze. "Please Director Hatsune, allow me to go down and face her. I will not fail again!"

"Megurine-san…" Director Hatsune said slowly, his deep bass rumble echoing off the rooftop. "You are not strong enough to face her, we know this from past experience."

"Then I'll go with her! We'll Resonate, we've done it before!" The silk was sliding away from the steel will that was Miku's inner resolve and both girls looked up at the Director with determination in their eyes. "We have to go, dad! It has to be us! No one else is strong enough!" It wasn't a boast, just a statement of fact, and they all knew it.

"We're out of time, Director." Luka added intently. "I understand the need for information but it doesn't seem like she's willing to talk. We have to act, and no one else up here can." She gestured around at the others on the rooftop, every last one of them watching their little group now as they deliberated, concerned looks on every face.

"Perhaps you should take backup then. Gackpo perhaps." The Director began but his daughter started shaking her head before he even finished.

"I won't risk anyone else's life in this, daddy." The silk shroud was gone and Miku's steely determination was every bit a match for the idol's now. "Besides, if we fail, you'll need everyone you can get to fight them off after."

For a long moment silence stretched between them, the seconds ticking by seeming to grate on everyone's nerves, then Motsu pushed the frame of his glasses up the bridge of his nose a little further before reaching out to cup Miku's chin with one hand. The twintailed girl's green eyes widened in surprise at the unexpectedly affectionate gesture from her normally stoic reserved father and before she could react he turned to Luka. "Take care of my daughter, Megurine-san."

Luka gave a firm nod in response to that. "I had already planned on it. Always."

They might have said something more but Kiku's dark voice sounded out from below once more. "Five minutes, Vocaloids."

Without further delay the two powerful Vocaloids turned to run for the hatch that led down from the roof to the corridors of the Compound below. They hurried along the hallways and down stairways not wanting to waste any more time, and it wasn't long before they came to the front doors of the entryway and stopped. They could hear the souldrinkers on the other side still trying to force their way in, clawing and growling and prying at the doors. Alone in the hall they traded a look there before the door, and Luka opened her mouth. "Miku-chin, I-"

"Don't." Miku stopped her, the idol's tone making her wince a bit. "We'll be fine. None of that."

They stared at each other for a long intense minute then Luka just smiled. "I love you." She tried to put all of her heart into those bare few words. Somehow it didn't seem enough, but it did enough.

Miku blushed faintly but she smiled back, and the emotion in her chime like voice was just as full of emotion as was her own. "And I love you."

Luka felt Miku's sonic energies beginning to pour into and through her even as her own instinctively reached out to the other girl's. Their power surged around them, reverberating together, merging, becoming one. It felt wonderful, as it always did, almost euphoric, drawing all that power through the other girl and into herself, rebounding and amplifying, and she knew Miku was feeling the same. Their smiles widened further as a sense of the other girl filled the back of each of their minds. The process of Resonating was a purely mechanical thing when done with another Vocaloid normally, yet when done with one of your Resonators it became a deeply personal act. The Resonance Bond was very nearly intimate in a lot of ways. She wasn't sure why, and Luka had never thought to question it before Haku started making all of her inquiries, but with their power infusing the other girl she could almost swear she could feel what Miku was feeling, nearly hear what she was hearing. Not quite, but it seemed that if she concentrated just a little more she might be able to. She had a sudden urge to reach out and touch Miku's face to see if she could feel her own fingers on her love's cheek, and the thought made her want to giggle.

"Ready?" Miku asked, and Luka nodded. They each reached a hand out to one of the door latches, unlocked them, grabbed a handle, and threw the doors open wide. They swung inward passed them and began to rebound shut once more. There was a loud clatter as the surprised souldrinkers dropped the bend street sign pole, but even before the bar came to rest the two powerful Vocaloids were already singing. They didn't have to discuss the song first, didn't have to agree on it, their instincts were perfectly aligned, their intuition in harmonious sync. They needed something fast paced with a hard beat, and "Ikkitousen" blasted out of them. They stepped forward in a dancing walk step as the doors swung closed behind them and sonic energy waves began exploding out from them. Light blue and pink waves of light no normal human eye could have seen ripped through the air and slammed into the creatures before them, sending them flying dozens of meters up and back through the air. A cheer rose on the rooftop high over head as they took up positions on the front steps of the main doors but advanced no further. They paid the undulations no mind as they focused on their song and dance. Souldrinker after souldrinker rushed up toward them trying to get to them but they danced on, wave after wave of sonic boom blasting them back, and whenever an energy wave hit one of the creatures stopped moving.

They were in their element and they were on their home turf, and every motion aligned perfectly in unison with the girl's next to her as though it were a choreographed show. Every Vocaloid was the living embodiment of their art, of their style of fighting, but none were as strong or adept as they were, and as those on the rooftop watched the Odoru no Buda displayed at it's fullest and most deadly grace the cheers gave way to amazed murmurs. Any one of them was free to watch the training of the others for pointers or advice or practice but few ever really did. The Compound was huge and their numbers small which made them practically strangers. It was something Haku had commented on, another oddity that had never seemed strange until the white haired exotic girl had mentioned it aloud. No one was quite sure how long the fight went on but Resonating was an intensely powerful yet extremely draining process and they couldn't keep it up for as long as they could have fought on their own. Yet after a time they found no more of the creatures rushing up to them. A natural lull in the music hit just as the last flew back and they paused where they were, panting ever so slightly with the strain of maintaining such high power output for so long. The only other person standing in the courtyard now was the darkly beautiful woman herself.

"Well…" Kiku's low dark voice sounded almost like a caressing whisper in the darkening evening that didn't seem to touch her. "How very cooperative of the two of you, to assemble yourselves here and save me the trouble of hunting you down and exterminating you after I have claimed my prize."

They didn't feel the need to bandy words as apparently Kiku did, and they stepped forward in unison, bending at the knee slightly, cocking their elbows opposite the other and flicking their wrists. The entire dance step took only a heartbeat, but that was all that was needed to send a Resonated sonic wave toward the darkly beautiful woman. They both gaped as the energy wave seemed to hit Kiku who held up a hand as though to deflect it, and the wave seemed to part around her like an ocean wave breaking over a rock. They tried again, twisting at the waist and popping hips together still in unison, their voices one as they harmonized a few notes. More waves broke over her in the same way to no effect.

"Oh my," Kiku mused aloud, still without actually smiling but managing anyway to give off the impression of being amused. "You two really are tired, aren't you? Did holding the door to protect your inferiors tire you out so much?" She lifted her other hand, bringing it level with the first in a smooth sweeping arch, "Then allow me to put you down for a naaaaaaaaaaaap." She used the extended tone in the last word as her note, and that same dark tone from before reached out toward them, only this time instead of crackling like lightning it twisted and writhed like a black light tendril. Luka took a step forward as though to keep Miku away, but the light blue haired girl had apparently had the same thought as she dove in front of Luka with a cry.

"Miku-chin! No!" Luka grabbed her wrist and tried to pull her back but the result was that they both took the energy blast. It seemed to fork at the last moment with them both available as a target and Luka felt as though every nerve in her body caught fire. She didn't realize she was airborne until her back impacted the wall to one side of the entrance doors, and a split second later Miku hit the wall on the other side with a groan. The tendril didn't let them go, and they were suspended in the air against the wall with their booted feet dangling a foot or two above the floor.

There was a singson exchange of notes and a couple of sonic waves impacted Kiku from above. She looked up to see two Vocaloids throwing what ability they had at her from the roof, but from her angle against the doorframe Luka couldn't see who it was, but they had to know that if Miku and Luka couldn't handle Kiku no one could. They were too tired, too worn out from the protracted battle through the Compound, that even Resonating their power wasn't enough. They had been fools, coming out of the doors with everything they had right off, exhausting themselves early on so Kiku wouldn't have to worry about their combined power. They had played right into her hands.

"No! Get away!" Miku cried weakly, trying to get whoever it was above out of harm's way, but like Luka she couldn't move from the wall. The tendril was sapping what strength they had left, their bodies feeling weaker by the moment.

Kiku's full lips twisted with an annoyed grimace. "Pests. Ants bubbling up from the kicked ant hill." She muttered. She shifted one of her elbows up without taking her hand away from the tendril and aimed it at over head. Another dark note, this one higher pitched, a slight elbow pop, and a dark light flashed out upward with a lethal force. There was an explosion of stone cracking and a shower of chipped concrete debris rained down from above. No bodies came down though, they must have backed up in time.

"Stop! Stop it!" Miku shouted. She let out an anguished note and kicked a foot. The resulting sonic wave might have done for a souldrinker but with their power so drained to Kiku it was barely anything at all.

Kiku turned her red orange eyes back on Miku and she tilted her head. "You wish to accelerate our encounter? Very well." The black light tendril surged with increased power, and Luka began to scream in agony as her body convulsed. She realized that Miku was screaming too, and they both writhed against the wall, feet kicking as their strength was leached from them. They were going to die. She could feel it.

"Give me Yowane-san!" Kiku cried, and the tendril surged again.

"N-No!" Luka managed to scream back. "N-N-Never!"

"HAKU-CHIN!" Miku screamed, straining against the tendril holding her.

"HAKU-CHIN!" Luka screamed with her in unison.

… … … … …

It was a long sleep, a dreamless sleep most of the time, though occasionally images flickered through her mind. Images of Luka and Miku mostly, but sometimes interspersed with other people she knew. Her parents, her attendants in the house she was kept in as a child, people she had met at University, sometimes even inanimate things like her pile of stuffed animals she had amassed over the years. Most of the time however it was just an endless float through the blackness. She wasn't even sure if what she saw was real or not. Her occasional bouts of wakefulness were just as fuzzy as the dream images were, but she knew they were real enough when they happened. Along with the empty blackness was a lack of thought. She was aware of nothing except for the odd struggle her body was going through. There was no telling how long that struggle had gone on for; hours, days, weeks, months, she had no idea. It had finally at long last begun to wear off however. It didn't hurt precisely, but it was certainly uncomfortable, as though her muscles were trying to rattle themselves apart on some deeply invisible level. It was nearly over… nearly over…

"N-No! N-N-Never!"

The anguish in that wail pierced the darkness blanketing her mind, distant and faint but she could hear it from an eternity away, the first awareness she had had in eons. The crystal voice was familiar, she knew it. And it was in trouble, not just worried for her. Something was happening… something was going on…

"HAKU-CHIN!"

"HAKU-CHIN!"

Luka... Miku… they were in trouble! She had to help them! She had to! Mind over body, she rallied herself on some level she had not previously been conscious of and clawed her way to wakefulness. Red eyes snapped open, and Haku launched herself out of the bed. She felt… alive! Truly alive! She hadn't felt like this in… well, in ever she didn't think. The weakness was gone at last, whatever her body had needed to work through it had done so, and she felt… fantastic! She heard screams, pulling her attention back, and she began to run guided by the shrieks of agon, down the hall of the medical wing, passed Doctors Hatsune and Haruna who called out to her to stop, around the corner to the main corridor that would lead to the front entry hall. She needed a song… something to sing, something of love for her two beauties but full of energy and strength. She had it, and she felt her sonic energies surge through her. As she moved toward the huge oaken doors she was already dancing, a rolling sort of dancing step carried her forward toward them, and she let out the first words and notes, actually singing as the music manifested directly from her body's sonics, the melody and the beat bursting from her.

"Moe isukiru wa, kono koi tabun!"

(This love might burn out)

The massive oaken slabs to the entryway practically blew out of their frame, a splintering of wood causing them rip their hinges free of the wall and tumble end over end and down the stairs to either side of the woman on the steps and land in the courtyard as she exploded out from the entrance. She took in the scene with one glance. Juon Kiku… Haku slid forward between the darkly beautiful woman and her two captives. Her body intersected the the black light and it seemed to disintegrate on contact with her. Disrupted the tendril tried to arch into her body instead, but she let out the next lyric to the song as it tried.

"Donna shuumaku ga koyuou to kakugo shiteru!"

(No matter how this turns out, I'm prepared)

Her right fist pumped up into the air, then to the side, then back again with each syllable she sang and the raw energy pouring out of her against the tendril was like a roaring river beside a sink faucet. The light from her sonic wave was the purest white as it blew the tendril away, the black light dissipating like smoke in the wind. Haku spun around in her dance step in time to see Luka and Miku beginning a slow descent sliding down the wall. She completed her circle, her feet stepping in a tight spiral as she moved toward them, still singing as she spun.

"Yoyuu nante hotondo nai hisshi de shigamitsuiteru dake!"

(I'm up against the wall, barely hanging on)

The irony of the lyric was not lost on Haku as the spiral her feet were making kicked her sonic waves in a sort of spiraling whirl around her at floor level. It buffeted everything right in a circle about her, including her two loves as they slid down the wall so slowly, oh so slowly. Haku didn't know why they were moving so slowly, perhaps some sort of effect of Kiku's curse. Either way her energies buffered them as they came down, almost seeming to float as they touched down softly against the floor. She felt a dark energy coming from behind her and turned to face it. Kiku's hands were stretched out toward her (or had they been stretched out the entire time?) and the tendril was being replaced by a black arching beam.

"Yowane-san!" Kiku was shouting.

"Anata no me yasashiku idaki yoseru ude!"

(Your eyes your tender arms around me)

Pure white light met ghostly black and again Kiku's seemed to melt away before the flood that was Haku's energy. She managed to turn aside from Haku's sonic wave, but she didn't try to counter it. That meant she was on the defensive, unable to dissipate Haku's attack. She was moving super slowly too, what was going on?

"Subete ga, subete ga, hajimete no fall in love datta waaaaaaaaa!"

(Everything about you, everything about you, Made me fall in love for the first time)

Haku's power was on the verge of being uncontrollable, the blast enough to rip through the intervening airspace between herself and the red haired woman. Kiku took a part of the energy blast in her shoulder, the rest of the wave tore a horizontal gash through the courtyard wall by behind where she had been standing. She would have to try to be more careful, but she felt… she felt charged, like a metal pole in contact with a live electrical wire.

"Ha-Haku-ch-chin…" She heard the weak crystal voice mutter behind her, and she spun, her snowy hair swirling about her.

Time almost seemed to surge back to normal around Haku as she turned. The two girls against the wall completed settling down to the ground and Kiku finished falling backward. Luka was slumped hard against the wall and was reaching desperately for Miku whose eyes were closed as she sagged against the floor not moving. Haku's heart leapt into her throat and in another time blurring motion she came down to kneel beside them. Kiku's dark energies were still clinging to both, crackling around them and all along their bodies. Haku's instincts were on overdrive just as her power was and she knew she had to remove the dark woman's cursed energies. She leaned down to Miku, lifting her chin with a finger. The pretty blue haired girl's green eyes fluttered open faintly.

"H… Ha… ku… chi… n….?"

"Kiss me, hanasanaide…!"

(Kiss me, don't let me go)

Haku sang the lyric slowly, low pitched, and full of meaning, full of emotion, every ounce of love she felt for Miku, everything she loved about her. Her steel will wrapped in her beautiful silk cloth exterior personality. Her bubbliness, her positivity, her wonderful purity. She leaned in and pressed her lips to Miku's as the lyric left her mouth, and that pure white energy radiated out from where their lips met, from where her fingertip touched the other girl's chin. It started there, and washed through her entire body, melting the cursed dark energies away as easily as her blasts had washed away Kiku's waves. Miku's green eyes popped open in awe and wonder even as she held the kiss, and after it was done and Haku leaned back she panted heavily, her chest heaving with the intensity of the cleansing, gasping for breath. Haku turned her attention on the beautiful pink haired idol as Miku slid along the floor toward her too.

"Kiss me, shizen na mama de…!"

(Kiss me, wipe away my anxiety)

She did the same for Luka, a slow low pitched lyric full of her love for the idol. Her radiance, her inner strength, her diamond will, her assertiveness, her feminine confidence. A finger under the chin, a gentle press of lips to lips. Luka's blue eyes were already wide at having watched Haku's effect on Miku, but as the pure white energy spread through her body they widened even further, as far as they would go. She pressed into the kiss, their noses brushing, red eyes and blue full of meaning, and when Haku leaned away finally Luka was left just as breathless and panting just as hard as Miku was.

"Kono fuan wo nugui totte."

(Like it's so natural)

Her smile positively radiated her love for them and as one they reached up to cup either of her cheeks in a hand. They knew, beyond any doubt whatsoever, that she was singing for them. They knew she had saved their lives as much for herself as for them, just as they had saved hers days ago.

"Yowane-san! You are mine!" Kiku was barreling hard and fast toward them up the stairs and she was stepping in a beat of her own, a low terrible tempo coming from her body as she flicked wrists and hands and elbows at them. A flurry of sonic blasts came at them almost too fast for even a Vocaloid's eyes to follow. Almost. Except for Haku anyway. Her newly awakened power had her up and spinning to face the threat instantaneously. Time seemed to slow down for her again, and the thought came to her that had she a marker she could have leaned forward to doodle on Kiku's face with plenty of time to spare before the onslaught of energy blasts reached her. Behind her Luka and Miku were trying to get to their feet to put themselves between Haku and Kiku, but they had as little chance in that as Kiku did in her all out assault. WIth almost contemptuous ease Haku began to spin. Her arms went up over her head in a graceful step, her wrists bent and her hands out, and she leaned to the side just slightly so that when she spun her hands would come around in sideways arches. She was like a dervish spinning; she ducked, twirled, spun and whirled. Her sonic waves as well as her snowy cascading hair swirled and whipped around her like a tornado and every spin around she sang as the music emanated from her body and her hands let loose a counter wave that melted each of those in Kiku's flurry.

"Nee nee nee nee… Nee nee nee nee…"

(Please please please please… Please please please please…)

Kiku blinked in surprise as her flurry melted before her eyes, Haku spinning too fast for her to make out, for any of them to make out. Luka and Miku flinched back away from her unsure what to do, but as the pure white sonic bursts melted the dark energy flurry Haku kept singing, kept whirling in circles, and kept sending forth those pure white bursts.

"Touch me, sono yubisaki, Touch me, sono manazashide, Kono watashi wo tsutsumikon de "

(Touch me, envelop me, Touch me, in your fingers, And in your gaze)

Faster and faster the white energy bursts came, faster and faster the tempo picked up, the music from Haku's body as loud as any speaker could have made it. Louder even. Kiku had no chance to get out of the way, no chance to raise any sort of defense, and after her own flurry had been countered there was nothing left between her and Haku, and the red eyed exotic beauty overwhelmed her. Every time her hands came around there was another burst, and every burst was another hit, and each hit so fast as to come right behind the previous one. Taking several of the bursts all at once Kiku began to fall in that agonizing slowness as though she were being borne gently to the ground, but there was nothing gentle about it. She went down backward, landing hard on one hip and elbow. Her face contorted in pain from the landing as well as the pure white sonic bursts.

"Please please please please… Please please please please…"

Kiku had nothing left, her energy gone from the sheer overpowering onslaught which Haku delivered. Her eyes rolled up into the back of her head and her eyelids lowered as she lost consciousness. All at once time shifted back to normal for Haku and she completed a final spin before coming to rest right at the exact moment the music's beat paused. She had stopped facing the other two girls still standing against the wall with her arms out as though gesturing at both of them, palms up and fingers crooked as though inviting them into her heart.

"Aishiteru!"

(I love you!)

The final lyric of the verse was not accompanied by any sonics as she faced them, she simply sang it out for them and them alone. She had been singing for them the whole time anyway, and they knew it. Blue and green eyes were wide, and they still panted for breath from their cleansing a moment before, but still they rushed her together, reaching her at the same time. Haku felt four arms go around her and they both pressed fervent kisses against her lips on either side of her mouth. The rest of the world fell away, their broken tripod was whole again, nothing else mattered. She put one arm around each of them and they simply stood there wrapped in each other's embrace for long moments. There was nothing but love, warmth, closeness, and comfort. All three of them felt a moment of pure happiness.

The rest of the evening seemed to blur by for them. The cleanup from the attack was underway and Director Hatsune had that firmly organized and under control. The overhang over top of the entryway had hid the three girls from sight for the most part so one of that had been seen from above but everyone had seen Haku's dance and Kiku being overwhelmed and had come down after she had been subdued. Doctor Hatsune was seeing to the injured on the rooftop from Kiku's blast though none was serious thankfully, and repair teams were trying to find all the building points that had been damaged. Kiku was kept sedated in the medical ward until they could figure out what more to do with her, and in the meantime the three of them found they had very little to actually do. They felt more in the way than anything, and finally Director Hatsune ordered them to bed with a curt, "You three have been responsible for saving a lot of lives tonight, I think we can do without you for the rest of the evening. Go get some rest." And with that they found themselves dismissed and heading back to their rooms.

In the hallway between their three rooms they paused for a brief moment to look at each other. Ever the one to take the lead Luka indicated her door with a tilt of her head and a raised questioning eyebrow. The other two nodded and turned to duck quickly into their own rooms to gather a few necessities first before crossing back through the hall to the idol's room. Haku let Miku in ahead of her then pushed the door closed behind herself. Luka was already sitting on the edge of her bed and Miku went to join her, sitting beside the idol and giving her a hug around the shoulders. Haku couldn't stop a small smile at the sight. They were so lovely…

"Are you going to stand there all night, Haku-chin?" Luka's crystal voice was playful.

Miku smiled and shifted aside making a space between them and patting it invitingly. "Come here, Haku-chin. We've missed you so much…" she blushed slightly but smiled.

Haku took a few steps forward to reach the edge of the bed, but she didn't sit immediately. She stopped in front of the pretty light blue haired girl and reached around behind her head to the clasp on her rose gold heart diamond set locket that she had given her and unclipped it gently. Miku had a questioning look in her green eyes but didn't say anything, then understanding replaced curiosity as Haku turned sideways to lay the locket gently on Luka's nightstand, out of the way. Then she shifted over in front of the idol and the pink haired beauty tilted her head for Haku and reached a hand up to hold her flowing ponytail aside so Haku could reach easier.

"You were absolutely incredible tonight, Haku-chin. I can't believe how strong you are now after Kiku's attack forced your power awake." Luka's praises made Haku blush as they always did, but she felt warmth spreading through her chest and she smiled.

"And so fast!" Miku added in bubbly tones. "I could barely keep my eye on you! Amazing! How did you do it?! I wish I could!"

Haku shook her head at the compliments but she was still smiling. She'd thought Kiku's dark abilities had been slowing everyone else down, but maybe she herself had been doing something instinctively or uncontrollably with her newly awakened powers. She would have to be careful.

"I'm sure you'll be able to do it too in time. You've both said you have yet to reach your full potential, I'm positive you'll pick it up." She set Luka's matching locket beside Miku's on the makeup stand and then reached up for her own clasp, but the other two caught her hands and pulled her down toward the bed between them. Haku smiled and turned to sit and together they worked her clasp beneath her snowy white hair and Luka leaned over for a moment to set Haku's locket on the nightstand beside the other two. Then a silence descended upon them, a slightly awkward moment while they gazed at each other trying to read their own impulses and those of the others. Then the idol tilted her head slightly and leaned in toward Haku. She felt her heart start to thud faster in her chest and her head tilted too. Their lips grew closer and closer, but just before they touched Haku leaned away a bit. Luka's face grew confused and her head stopped.

"What's wrong?" Haku heard Miku's voice quietly behind her, like a wind chime barely rustled in a faint night breeze.

Haku smiled apologetically to the pink haired beauty and reached up to brush her cheek with her fingertips of one hand. "I've been unconscious on a medical exam table for… how long?"

Luka frowned in confusion. "Three days." She answered, then her blue eyes dawned with understanding.

Miku let out a giggle. "You know, I think I could use a bath after all the excitement tonight!" She bubbled and hopped up off the bed.

Haku flashed her a grateful smile and they all began to retrieve their bathing necessities; body wash, shampoo and conditioner, scented oils, loofahs, and the like. Haku reached up to take the ribbons out of light blue and pink hair alike, slipping the silky smooth strands free so all of their hair could flow freely for the bath. Luka and Miku hadn't put any ribbons in her own hair while she was unconscious to avoid tangles. That done they retrieved several towel each and left Luka's room to head down the hallways to bathrooms not far down the corridor. Remarkably the dorm areas had escaped the chaos all together and they found the bathroom empty, though it probably wouldn't stay that way for too long once the rest of the Compound completed what tasks they could manage for the evening and went in search of relaxation.

Miku skipped over to the giant tub and turned on the jets and the heaters before coming back to join Haku and Luka undressing by the clothes holders. It was a strange sort of moment as all three of them tried to figure out where to direct her eyes. They each wanted to look at the others but they each wanted to be decent too, and yet they each knew the others were feeling the same way. Eventually however they managed to get themselves out to the washing area with their baskets of soaps and Haku tried hard to ignore the sudden rush of heat she was feeling through her body as she focused on getting herself clean. The doctors had taken care of her while she was unconscious, but sponge baths and IV drips could only do so much and the list of things her body craved seemed a mile long, but this bath was right at the top of the list. Her lavender body wash felt divine as she slid her loofah over her body, the cleanliness seeming to her at least as though it were seeping into her very core. She loved baths and she loved the feeling of what to her felt like grime being sluiced off of her skin, even though there was no visible dirt or anything like that. It just felt so good to her and she let out little sighs of relief as she went over herself from head to toe, sliding the soft poof through every nook and cranny and rinsing regularly and getting more soap. She must have used a fair bit of her body wash, she'd have to go get more.

Her hair took significantly longer than the soaping did because it was so long, and she started working from the top down with her floral shampoo. She always took the absolute best care of her silky locks as she could, the soft snowy white strands cascading around her. Once she was done with the shampoo she started again with the conditioner and went over it once more, then when it was all done she rinsed herself one more time and then bound her hair up in a net to keep it from trailing in the tub, then turned to find Luka and Miku just finishing up as well. They turned toward each other on their little stools as they finished netting their hair and all three froze.

The light glinted off their bare wet skin, and all eyes began to roam over curves in ways they had never before, and they each took a moment to appreciate the other two's forms. Haku and Luka's chests were close in size, the taller pink haired beauty's double D's no more than a measurement step or two smaller than Haku's own, but Miku's looked proportionately similar because she was a little shorter than Haku in height, and her large B's or perhaps small C's were perkier besides. Miku's hips were a little curvier than Haku's own she thought, and Luka's smooth legs were so sensuously long. Some part of herself couldn't help but compare herself to the other two and feel a tad inadequate, but the looks of hunger and desire on their faces made that small part a very tiny voice in a far back corner of her mind that she managed to mostly shut away.

"Haku-chin…" Luka breathed, her crystal voice low and husky with need, and Miku was swallowing hard.

Haku blushed but so did they, and rather than let that become a conversation she stood gracefully and moved toward the tub, but she was feeling playful now so she backed toward it in a reverse dance step so they could keep watching her. They rose to follow after her as though mesmerized and they all stepped over the rim of the tub and sank into the hot water. Miku let out a squeak and squirmed sideways as she sat, blushing even more prettily as she muttered something about a jet in just the wrong place… or perhaps the right place…? They sat in the water for a long few minutes just soaking in the heat and staring at each other. Luka and Miku shifted their gazes to each other giving Haku the chance to eye them the way they had eyed her. The clear water rippled but didn't block sight and they each found they were just as happy being looked at by the others as they were doing the looking. Haku had never wanted to be looked at before, and it was a strange feeling, but it was the the two women she loved and it was a happy feeling.

After a time of nothing but looks and blushes the atmosphere shifted slightly in some small indescribable way and as one the other two slid up to Haku on either side and pressed in close. She felt her cheeks heat furiously as she felt both of the other two's breasts sandwich around either of her upper arms. _So soft…_ she thought and felt that heat spreading through her middle even more than it had a moment before. She squirmed slightly where she was sitting but didn't have long to think about it. Luka reached her left hand up to Haku's chin and turned her head to the left to tilt her face up to the idol's. "Now where were we…?" She breathed hotly.

Their lips met and fireworks exploded in Haku's mind. Luka's tongue sliding against hers tasted like cherries from her toothpaste and her lips were soft and firm at the same time. She let out a soft moan against the idol's lips but pressed closer into the kiss, enraptured. She felt Miku's fingertips trailing against the other side of her face and down her neck, caressing her gently even as she kissed Luka. She had no idea how long it went on but after an indeterminate amount of time Luka pulled back to let her breathe and Haku gasped partially in need of air but partially in protest at the break. She didn't have to wait long though as the tips of Miku's right hand fingers took her chin and turned her head around to the right. She didn't say anything, just leaned in where Luka had left off. Miku tasted of cinnamon mint and her tongue seemed a little more insistent than Luka's had been, but Haku responded to her just as fervently with tongue and lips pressed in, trying to show Miku how much she liked it with her mouth alone. She felt Luka's lips on the left side nape of her neck kissing and nipping at her even as she was kissing Miku. She squirmed and didn't care when her breath ran out, but Miku pulled back so they could breathe and again Haku whimpered in protest.

While she panted for a moment Luka leaned across Haku's front to reach for Miku and they took a turn. They pressed their lips together passionately and as they leaned over her Haku felt their chests floating in the water brush softly against her own. Heat surged inside her and by the way the other two were shifting their hips they felt it too, but they didn't let up. If their lips stayed locked as long as they had done with her it was no wonder breathing had been an issue. None of them had much experience at this, there had to be a better way, but at least this made for a natural sort of turn taking, which Haku hadn't stopped to think about before. With a three person couple such things would have to be taken into account in ways a traditional pair wouldn't need to think about.

Suddenly they heard the outer bathroom doors swinging open. Luka and Miku moaned unhappily at the interruption as their lips parted and all three of their cheeks, already heated from their closeness, caught fire as they moved apart a bit. Then they broke into giggles; it would be a few moments before whoever it was came all the way in because they had to undress and get ready to wash, so in reality it was an ideal buffer for them to part. Haku's mind flashed back to when she'd caught Teto and Gumi in here doing much more than the three of them now were, but at that time Haku hadn't been coming in for a bath but to look for her companions so there hadn't been a buffer then. Luka dipped her head in again to press her lips first against Miku's then Haku's in much more brief kisses and whispered hotly to them, "Let's go back to my room…?" It was phrased like a question, but it wasn't actually. Haku and Miku swallowed hard and nodded fervently in agreement though as if it had been a request, and they stood to get their towels and wrap up. They discarded their hair nets into the bin and and then wrapped their heads before winding towels around their chests, middle, and hips for the trip back to the idol's room, passing a couple of girls she didn't know on the way out. They had to force themselves to walk calmly and not run back.

The minute they were inside Luka's room the idol dropped her towels, spun, and pressed Haku up against the closing door. Haku squeaked in surprise but her arms went around Luka instinctively. She heard a giggle from Miku and felt a tug around her as her back pushed the door shut with a click. Her bare back, and her bare front pressing against Luka's bare front. Miku had snatched her towels! She had only a moment for the thought as she felt Luka's breasts squash against her own, felt the idol's tongue slip into her mouth. The kiss was far hungrier than the one in the tub had been and Haku gasped against the idol's lips. Her hands ran up and down Luka's back as though not sure where to land but the motion of her fingertips dancing up and down her flesh sent a shiver of delight up the pink haired beauty's spine.

Haku felt a hand tugging at her arm and she glanced down to see Miku tugging at the two of them. Luka broke away from Haku's lips to lean over and grab Miku around the waist with one arm but kept the other around Haklu too. Haku took the opportunity to tug Miku's towel off the way she had hers and the pretty light blue haired girl let out a squeak of her own before Luka's mouth claimed her lips. Haku watched for a moment before deciding that the carving on the door was not very comfortable pressed in against her back digging into her flesh the way it was and she pushed against the other two. Somehow they managed to keep their lips together even as she pushed then to the edge of Luka's bed and they sat instinctively. She watched them there for a time, just gazing at them as they sat there naked and kissing. Such a lovely sight… she felt like singing. She felt hot all over.

Something indeterminate shifted in the air between them again and as one the two looked up at her, panting and blushing but desire lighting their eyes still. Curious blue and green eyes regarded her and Luka tilted her head at her. "What's wrong, Haku-chin?"

Haku shook her head smiling down at them. "Nothing is wrong. You're just both so beautiful."

She said it so matter of factly but with such a sheer degree of emotion in the statement that they both flushed all the more. Together they reached out for her hands and pulled her down onto the bed between them. Haku landed on her hands and knees but Miku took her by the shoulders and rotated her so she flipped onto her back with a swish of damp white hair and Luka pressed her lips to her shoulder and began trailing kisses down her front. Haku squirmed as the heat inside her flared as the idol reached the top of one of her breasts but right then Miku leaned down to the other. Haku couldn't stifle a moan of pleasure as they each found one of her nipples, circling them tantalizingly with the tips of their tongues before finally taking them into their mouths to suckle at. They rolled them in their lips and flicked them with their tongues for a few moments and Haku ran her hands over their heads as she moaned again.

After a few moments Luka continued trailing kisses down her body but Miku kept on with Haku's large boobs, alternating between them as she continued licking and suckling while playing with the other. Luka's kisses traveled down her tummy and reached the top of her mound and Haku clamped her legs shut from embarrassment, but it was only a half hearted reflex and Luka knew it. The pink haired beauty tugged Haku's knees apart and continued running her lips over Haku's smooth mound and down to her slit. And then Haku's body seemed to catch fire as she felt the idol's fingers spread her open and wrap her lips around Haku's clit. She bucked her hips reflexively as she moaned louder but Luka got a grip on her hips and wouldn't let her move, and she began with a gentle slow soft licking that gradually built in speed. Haku's head swam and she felt the heat within burn hotter yet. She had experimented on her own in the past of course but that had never been anything like this. Miku never let up at Haku's nipples and Luka's tempo continued to increase and she felt her herself building toward release. Her hands gripped the pink bed covers as all she could do was hold on as her two lovers played her body like an instrument. Finally she was right there and she leaned her head down.

"So… hot… I'm… so..." She gasped out, leaning upward with her torso, and she let go of the blanket to bury one hand in Luka's hair to hold her head in place and reached the other around Miku's shoulders. "M-Miku-chin… please… while I… I need…" She had to pant the words out between ripples of pleasure coursing through her center but somehow Miku understood and shifted to lean upward into Haku's one armed embrace, the entire length of her naked body sliding along Haku's bare flesh, and pressed her lips to Haku's hungrily, greedily, using one hand to keep her light blue hair from falling forward and drowning them. Haku felt her tongue dive into her mouth and she tried to reciprocate but with Luka's tongue working magic between her legs and Miku kissing her so passionately she didn't just tip over the edge, she was launched. All she felt was love and passion and that blazing heat. She would have screamed in ecstasy had Miku's mouth not been covering hers so she moaned hotly against her lips instead, clutching at Miku's back with one hand and Luka's head with the other as her entire body shook and convulsed. It took three or four eons for the shaking to subside and Miku and Luka seemed content to kiss and lick her down through her orgasm, holding on to her the whole way.

When her climax finally slowed Miku bore her down to the bed once more and Luka looked up from between Haku's legs, lips glistening with her juices as she smiled. "No, you're beautiful." She told her and Haku blushed like crazy. Miku looked down at Luka's mouth and licked her lips, glancing at Haku briefly before she scooted down so she could press her mouth to the idol's lips. They shared a long slow kiss, their tongues working over each other's lips, and it took Haku a second to understand what they were doing. When she realized they were sharing her taste she blushed even harder if that were possible. How hard could one person really blush? She was sure she was going to find out.

Once they had licked Haku's taste from each other's mouths they looked up at her and her furious sunset face, and Haku realized they were waiting on her. It occurred to her in that moment they seemed to do that a lot, as though afraid of frightening her off or hurting her. Maybe because they had before and didn't want to repeat it, or maybe because she had so recently been injured. Either way she knew now that if she wanted this to end all she had to do was stop, but if she wanted it to continue she had to be the one to reciprocate now. She smiled down at her two lovers; she had absolutely no desire for it to end.

She sat up and reached out for Miku and the pretty light blue haired girl lifted her hands with a smile for Haku to take. "I think it's only fair if we all share." She practically whispered not fully trusting her voice, but it came out as a smokey promise and and the other two shivered with giddy excitement. Haku drew Miku up the bed beside her where she had been and gave her spot over. She motioned Luka up to take Miku's previous spot, and the idol needed very little encouragement to do so. Then Haku took Luka's previous spot completing the rotation, and leaned down to begin suckling at one of Miku's nipples gently. Luka took the other and they smiled at each other with Miku's nipples in their mouths. For her part Miku's fingers began to trail up and down each of their necks as she watched them, seeming to not want to miss anything they were doing. Haku tried to give as good as she had gotten, and after a few moments of suckling and flicking the nipple she had with her tongue she moved down Miku's body, emulating Luka's trail of kisses which she could still remember clearly as they seemed to have left a trail of fire down her chest and tummy. When she reached Miku's mound she caught her scent and inhaled deeply, breathing on the smooth skin and pausing to admire the sight for a long moment after her legs had parted until she heard Miku positively whimper with anticipation.

"Ha-Haku-chin… p-please…" Haku's pulse raced faster at Miku's need and she glanced up just for the view. Luka was working at Miku's nipples still but had her head angled with her blue eyes sighting down Miku's body so she could watch Haku. She smiled again with a nipple in her mouth but didn't stop suckling while playing with the other with the fingers of one hand. Miku was watching too around the mass of pink hair in her way and her face was positively spectacular, a look of both love and desire. Haku smiled at them both then began to lick. One slow deliberate lick for herself the entire length of Miku's core, her tongue sliding over her opening then up along her clit then around the folds of her lower lips. Miku cried out and got ahold of Luka's arm to hold on, and then Haku shifted to more targeted licks for the twintailed girl. First up and down along her nub, then through her delicate folds, then circling her opening. She let her tongue dart barely inside her briefly before bringing it back up to start over. She repeated this a few times before beginning to vary it, letting her tongue simply explore Miku's sensitive areas. Miku's moaning grew louder and louder as Haku let her tongue dart and dip and twirl in it's task. Miku tasted so good, so purely of herself. She thought she would remember this forever and wanted to absorb every moment of it. Suddenly she heard Miku squeal and her hips began to buck as her body convulsed. She glanced up, she had been so absorbed in the fun of it that she hadn't quite watched for the other girl's release and she saw Miku holding hard to Luka as she shuddered and shook. Luka was petting her hair and kissing her face and after Miku could think again she began kissing back. Once Miku's body relaxed back Haku leaned up and caught her gaze, red eyes locking on green for a moment.

"Was I…" Haku asked sheepishly, then swallowed to try again. "Was it… okay…?"

Miku blinked at the question as though it were the silliest possible thing in the world to say in that moment. "O-Okay?" She gasped. "Haku-chin… my god… you're amazing…"

Then Luka was there, pressing her mouth to Haku's and running her tongue over her lips. Haku realized she was sharing Miku's taste with her as she had shared Haku's with Miku. Haku closed her eyes and kissed back, trying to use her tongue to push some of Miku's juices off her lips into the idol's mouth. Luka moaned against her lips and Haku felt a thrill go through her at the sharing. Once their lips were both licked clean again they broke and glanced at Miku whose face was as crimson as Haku's had been a moment before. "Miku-chin… you taste heavenly…" Haku told told her, and Luka smiled coyly.

Miku was quicker on the rebound than Haku had been, leaning up and grabbing ahold of Luka's shoulders to practically toss her down onto the bed. The pink haired beauty went down with a giggle and a soft fwump against the covers and practically squirmed with anticipation. Miku didn't lay down a trail of kisses as the other two had done, she stuck the tip of her tongue out and began tracing slow circles along the entire length of Luka from her chin on down. Haku watched for a moment before practically diving down to Luka's breasts greedily. She cupped the far boob from her in one hand, the large mound so soft and pliable, then placed her cheek against the extra soft flesh of the one nearest her. She could scarcely believe how incredibly silky the idol's skin was there, the breast practically suctioning to her cheek, and she thought it might just have been her new favorite physical feeling that wasn't just sexual. She thought she could have laid there on it for hours just nuzzling the soft mound. She spent several long minutes simply enjoying the softness, letting it form around her jaw and chin as she teased at the nipple with just the edges of her lips, nuzzling and pressing against it before shifting away slightly, and then finally began to suckle at it after a long few tantalizing minutes. She tried some of the same tactics as she had done on Miku, but a nipple was something else and she found that circles and little flicks to the tiny nub were better. Or at least Luka seemed to enjoy them more as she ran a hand over Haku's snowy white hair in encouraging pets. She switched nipples, leaning across the idol's ample chest to get at the other one, and Luka began to clutch at Haku's arms and shoulders as Miku reached her center and began her turn. There was really very little technique to a nipple and Haku found herself trailing her fingertips along other parts of the pink haired beauty's body, caressing her thighs and tummy, trailing along her sides and petting her arms too while watching Miku work on Luka as Luka had watched her at Miku. It was all very loving, very delicate, very sensual, and the idol's hips were already bucking with the pleasure of it, which made sense. She was going last and the build up must have been excruciating. An exquisite sort of torture, it seemed to her. _Next time…_ she thought to herself after a moment. _Next time I want to go last…_

Luka's moans were louder than Haku's had been as well, and suddenly she felt Luka's hand pawing at her head insistently, trying to get Haku to look up. She let go of the nipple she had in her mouth with a little pop of suction and looked around. The pink haired beauty seemed unable to get any words out but however Miku had understood Haku at first she found she understood Luka, and leaned in for the kiss. Luka's lips were as soft as always and Haku didn't just kiss her, she wrapped her idol's shoulders with her arms and cradled her to her and tried her best to impart her love and warmth into the passionate embrace. Luka's blue eyes were wide and loving looking up at her across their noses, then suddenly her eyes squeezed shut and her body began to convulse as the other two's had before her. Haku held her through it, held her and kissed her and cooed at her against her lips as Luka's body shook and her hips bucked against Miku's mouth. When she finally sagged back in relief and opened her eyes Haku shared a smile with her but was antsy at the same time. She wanted to go get Luka's taste from Miku, and though Luka blushed as furiously in her turn as they had she nodded and Haku turned around swiftly to find Miku already leaning up toward her from between Luka's legs with her tongue slightly out. Haku dove in eagerly and sucked Miku's tongue into her mouth, wrestling it around for the taste then licking at Miku's lips. She moaned against the pretty light blue haired girl's mouth and got an answering moan in return.

"So good…" Miku sighed happily as they broke the kiss when their lips were cleaned at last and Haku nodded her fervent agreement. Then Miku got a devious sort of look in her eye and smirked at Haku. "You know… I haven't… gotten a turn… at Haku-chin yet…" She sounded playful despite her sly look and both of their cheeks heated.

Luka sat up at the suggestion and scooted backwards so she was closer to the top of her bed. "I have an idea…" She murmured and reached out for Miku. The blue haired girl leaned down but Luka patted at her knees so Miku spun around on her rear so her feet were toward the idol. Luka paused a moment looking at Miku up her body and when Miku looked at her questioningly she giggled and shook her head. "So pretty." She murmured. None of them could get over how gorgeous the other two were and it made them blush all over again every time one of them stopped to notice. Eventually Luka managed to get them in a circle face to groin of the next girl in spite of the fact that there was barely enough room on the bed to manage it; Luka's hair and Haku's hip were off the edge and Miku's back was pressed against the wall. Haku found herself leaning in toward Luka's smooth beautiful mound and glanced down to see Luka leaning in toward Miku and Miku's face near her own. The sight took her breath for a moment and she began to pant heavily at the thought of what they were doing, and she wasn't the only one. Luka swallowed hard and Miku's tongue was sticking out a tiny bit in eagerness.

They felt that subtle indeterminable shift in the air between them again and all at once their faces lowered in unison. Haku stretched her tongue out to part Luka's folds with it at the same instant she felt Miku's tongue in her own petals. As one they all three moaned against each other at the contact, still sensitive areas being stimulated all over again. They licked and moaned at each other for several long moments, starting slow and enjoying receiving as much as giving at the same time. Then an impulse struck Haku and she reached an arm around Luka's leg to position a finger at her opening, then Luka gasped and moaned louder in surprised delight as Haku slowly slid her finger inside the idol. Her inner tunnel was wet and soft and made Haku's chest flutter with the excitement of the feeling, so purely blissful at feeling her idol like this. Luka's hips shifted downward as she took Haku's finger in and a very visible bead of the pink haired beauty's excitement welled up and leaked down her lower lips. Luka must have taken the queue and done the same to Miku because she heard the blue haired girl moan against her groin and a split second after that felt one of Miku's fingers sliding inside of her as well. She gasped and could feel herself clenching down around Miku's fingers in response. Her fingers and toes curled slightly too, including the one still inside of the idol, which made Luka gasp, and so that went around their circle as well. A small part of her brain somewhere back behind all the pleasure and love she was feeling at the physical sensations she was sharing with her lovers found it an interesting phenomena, and Haku began to try little things to see if they would make it around the circle. Every last thing she tried did. She started by nipping slightly at Luka's clit with just her lips, tugging at it, and a moment later felt Miku doing it to her own as well. She slid a second finger gently inside of Luka, and a moment later felt a second finger from Miku into herself as well. She slid her two fingers back and forth and let her thumb bump against Luka even as she licked her, and again felt the same from Miku. She wanted to keep trying things, it was so fascinating, but the height of emotion between them and the extreme pleasure they were giving each other drawn out over long minutes of this had them all moaning and gasping against each other in short order. Their hips bucked, their bodies convulsed as they had earlier though this time in unison, and they all clutched at the other's hips and held on even as they licked each other through their releases. After she could see straight again and her joints unclenched Haku lay there between Luka's legs licking idly now and again sending shivers through the idol, giving off her own twitches and gasps as Miku did the same to her, and just enjoying her scent. They lay there in their afterglow for a long time together, and Haku thought Luka smelled similar to Miku but also entirely different, and she thought both of their scents and tastes were intoxicating.

As was becoming usual with them Luka moved first, sliding back away from the others and drawing them up. They flipped around so they were all lying straight in the bed with Luka in the middle and shared sort of a group kiss, each of them sharing the the other's tastes with each other, mingling and cleaning at the same time. Then Miku and Haku lay back along either side of the idol and Luka turned her head first to Miku then to Haku for more kisses. They lay like that in each other's arms, naked on Luka's bed which was just big enough to hold them all if not exactly spaciously, trading kisses and pressing their skin together. Warmth, companionship, love, happiness… eventually they fell asleep just like that, holding the others against themselves. The last thought that Haku had before sleep claimed her was that there was nowhere else in the world she would rather be.


	16. Vocaloid Academy Chapter 16

Haku threw the wheel of Miku's Ferrari over hard and let out a squeal of delight as the four eighty-eight threw them against the opposite sides of their seats. Miku's squeal was a near echo of hers and Luka, squished in between them, was in a hysterical fit of giggles. The other two clung hard to the one passenger handrail with one hand and each other with the opposite arm. The Ferrari's interior really wasn't big enough for three but Luka had insisted on coming every time. She was still a tiny bit jealous that Haku had asked Miku to teach her how to drive rather than the idol herself, and never mind that Luka had been unconscious at the time.

To her great surprise Haku had found that learning to drive had been mostly a matter of simply doing it rather than the harrowing experience she had thought it was going to be, and the instincts and intuitions that Vocaloids thrived on seemed to help just as much behind the wheel as anywhere else. She handled the wheel and the clutch and the shifter as if she'd been driving for years instead of days, and the Ferrari was a joy to drive. Operating a vehicle was both relaxing and exciting at the same time, as contradictory as that seemed, and Haku thought she could drive all day. It was the most fun she'd had since waking up; her days had been full of medical probing and proding by Doctors Hatsune and Haruna, two or three times a day they hooked her up to machines and measured and probed and took readings and made her emit sonics. They hadn't come to any conclusions as yet but it was so nice to get away for awhile and drive to forget about it. Especially the odd thought that was really bothering her, a realization she'd had while in the medical ward; why were there only two doctors for the entire Vocaloid Compound? If there were a dozen or two dozen of their number why was the medical staff so miniscule? It seemed odd, but… well there was driving to be had. With another peal of giggles she threw the wheel over again. The four eighty-eight pitched them the opposite way as the tires screamed on the pavement and they sailed around a corner. Several people screamed as the Ferrari drifted around past them within feet of hitting them, but Haku knew where the car was going to be, could all but see the path it was weaving as it cruised passed them.

"Haku-chin!" Miku gasped out between her own high pitched laughter. "Sl-slow down! You're going to get us pulled over!" She didn't sound like she wanted Haku to slow though, so the exotic snowy white haired beauty stepped on the gas a little more and threw the wheel back over once again. The drift had never stopped and as she spun the Ferrari around the back end fishtailed as she wove a figure eight through the street to send them down an alley.

Luka pointed and gasped out a giggle, but Haku had already seen the cat. She let her instincts guide her, let her impulses drive as much as she herself was, and as the cat began to duck one way she was already nudging the wheel the other. They came screaming out of the alley way as the cat was scaling a wooden telephone pole. "I want one of these!" Haku yelled out as they spun around another corner barely missing a fruit stand, though in truth there was never a chance of hitting it, not the way Haku could feel the car was moving. The fruit vendor wasn't as convinced of that however and she saw him in the rearview mirror waving his fists at them as the engine roared carrying them away from him.

"I think we need one with a back seat!" Luka snickered.

Miku giggled at that too. "I don't think Ferrari even makes cars with back seats."

"Then I guess she needs a car as pretty as this one that isn't a Ferrari." Luka laughed and then squeaked and threw an arm around Miku for support as Haku sent them screaming down another alleyway with a jerk of the wheel.

As soon as they came out of the alley the blare of a siren suddenly cut the air and red lights flashed in the mirrors. The cop car was clearly visible in the rearview behind them, and Miku let out a moan, "I knew you were going to get us pulled over."

Haku looked over at the other two girls who looked back at her with distressed looks on their faces. She tilted her head slightly, Miku's light blue side ponytails shifted as she tilted her head back. Luka's pink flowing ponytail shifted behind her as well with the same expression, then suddenly Haku's mouth twisted in a wicked grin. Their eyes widened at the look on her face, as well they might considering this was a side of the normally calm and outwardly serene girl they had come to know and love.

Haku hit the brakes and cranked the wheel just enough to turn the car and threw the shifter into reverse. Miku and Luka shrieked as they were suddenly pitched forward as the Ferrari's engine roared and the tires squealed kicking up a giant smoke cloud, the smell of burnt rubber permeating the air. They flung out hands to catch the dash as the car swiveled in reverse and the wheel turn was just enough to angle them so they curved around the cop car as it blazed passed them. For an instant the cop's startled face was clearly visible staring at them through the windows and haze of gray smoke as the sides of the vehicles passed within centimeters of each other. As soon as he was passed Haku turned the wheel a little more and twisted in her seat to look back through the rear window, holding to the wheel with one hand and the other seat with the other so she could see where she was going. She kept the reverse momentum and backed up at high speed through another alleway. They could hear the confused cop's sirens stop moving away and his tires shriek on the pavement as he tried to get turned around, but by the time he managed it Haku was already swiveling the car backwards out of the other side of the alley. RIghting herself in the seat she threw the car into gear once more and they took off in the opposite direction. A few twists and turns later they were thoroughly lost several blocks away from where the cop had seen them and moving steadily away from the siren fading behind them.

"Wow Haku-chin! What has gotten into you?!" Miku asked breathily trying to get her wind back. Luka spoke right at the same time.

"H-Haku-chin!" The idol gasped clutching at her chest. "W-Where did you… WHEN did you learn that?! This is only like the fourth time we've taken you out!"

Haku couldn't help letting out a little giggle. The entirety of the past several days for her had been splitting her time between helping clean up the wrecked courtyard at the Compound and increasing her training regimen. Now that her Vocaloid powers had been forced awake the need for more control was as crucial as ever and she had been dancing whenever she wasn't helping around the Vocaloid Compound. Getting to learn to drive for an hour or two at a time with the girls next to her was the only real fun she had been having in the interim, and it was such a joy it helped relieve the majority of her stress. The coming evening would be great though too, she thought. For the first time she would get to see Luka live on stage. "This is just so much fun!" She replied , though she did slow the car down a bit. A little bit.

After a series of turns and streets followed Haku pulled them into the mall parking lot that was the reason they were out in the first place. The driving practice had been a good reason to go out, but the mall was the true purpose, though Haku wasn't sure what that purpose was as yet. Miku and Luka had some plan in mind that they weren't telling her about so she was just going along with it. Once she parked the Ferrari Miku reached out to retrieve her micro chipped ID badge from the dash, cutting the engine. Her father had finally relented and given her permission to drive it again, nevermind the fact that thanks to Haku she could have anyway. For that matter Haku herself could have done it, but she didn't want anyone to know that yet…

The weather had begun turning cold enough for snow in the past week, and while it hand't yet the temperature had dropped enough that it was threatening to, and today in particular held a biting sort of wind which seemed to kick up from nowhere then disappear just as quickly. Haku wore a cute black and purple parka to cut the wind's bite, and the other two wore slick wind breakers, Luka's a vivid shade of pink a few shades brighter than her hair and Miku's a shade of bluish green that somehow managed to compliment both her hair and eyes at the same time. They all wore thick black jeans and half boots to keep the heat in as much as possible, and as they walked through the lot toward the building a few leaves tumbled along in their path as they went. Even though it was chilly Haku still liked this sort of weather, enjoying the feel of the frigid breeze buffeting against her parka. Haku tugged at her velvety black gloves, snugging them more firmly into place.

Haku let the other two lead her through the mall while she looked around curiously at window displays and kiosk stands. She hadn't been to this mall yet, and everything was laid out differently than in the one they usually went to. After a little wandering they led her into a wireless store. Display demos and accessories were set up all over the place for tons of different brands and carriers and she looked at everything with her red eyes wide with curiosity. She had lost her iPhone recently and hadn't yet had an opportunity to replace it. Her parents would doubtlessly have let her get the newest and best one, but the recent attack on the Vocaloids had made it seem that there just had been more important things to do than go phone shopping.

It seemed that was the plan for today though, as Miku and Luka stopped her short just inside the store's entrance. "Haku-chin, we have a surprise for you." The idol said.

Miku nodded. "We want to get you a new phone! Your's was broken when Kiku attacked you and you've gotten us such lovely gifts…" She reached up with one had to brush her fingertips against her heart shaped diamond set rose gold digital locket hanging against her chest, twin to the ones they were all wearing.

Haku blinked at them in surprise before shaking her head. "No. I mean it's kind of you to offer, but I didn't get them with the hope of getting anything in return. You shouldn't do this because you feel like you have to."

Miku's green eyes went wide for a moment before narrowing in a stubborn expression. She crossed her arms over her chest and leveled a look at the exotic snow white haired girl. "Who said anything about 'have to'? We want to!" She said firmly.

Luka narrowed her eyes too, cool blue meeting red. The idol stepped forward and took Haku by the arm gently but firmly and began guiding her into the store further. Without missing a beat Miku took her other arm to do the same as Luka added her own thought. "Haku-chin, you are obviously under the mistaken impression that there is any question about this. There is not. The only thing not decided here is what phone you want to pick out."

Haku had to try hard to suppress a giggle as the other two practically dragged her to the phone stands, but she couldn't keep a small smile off her lips even as she affected a long suffering look. "Well I suppose if that is how it is…" Her tone said that she was putting up with this under duress but the other two knew she was faking it. They giggled aloud and Luka reached out to pick up an Android.

"Look at this one, Haku-chin! It's the newest Galaxy model! Ooooo, look at how fast the specs say it is!" She held it up for inspection even as Miku leaned over as well.

"Here's an LG that looks pretty nice too! One of the better cameras it looks like, I bet the pictures will be crystal clear! Oh but this one is a really pretty, I bet it would match everything you wear! Hey this one is super thin, I bet it wouldn't bump against anything in your pocket, oh but it might break easily HEY this one has like only a couple of apps that come on it that's nice I hate how some phones come with a zillion apps you'll never use mine did and it sucks so I put them all in a single folder in my app list so at least I don't have to look at them and OH MY GOSH this one is so cute Haku-chin and it's all silver and white just like you!" Miku's bubbly personality was in full swing this morning as she bounced from display to display and Haku had to continue her efforts to keep from giggling at her and spoiling her long suffering act.

Thus the three of them spent the next hour and a half looking over phones. Or rather, Luka and Miku looked over the phones and held them out for Haku to inspect as she wandered between the display stands reading specs on the various models. They probably thought they were being sneaky but Haku could see what they were doing. At no point did they hold up any iPhones or Blackberries for her to look at. Indeed, every time her wanderings took her near a display stand that didn't have any Androids on it she found one or both of them suddenly at her elbow trying to show her a different phone or tugging at her arm to bring her back away from the iPhones. They both had Androids and they both had hated her old iPhone, and if they didn't realize she could see right through their little game then they were deluding themselves. Still, it made her smile to watch them at it, when they weren't looking her way at any rate. In truth it didn't particularly concern her one way or another which she got as long as it had decent specs but in the interests of playing along she pretended not to notice, widening her eyes in surprise every time they turned her around as if not knowing what was happening. In the end she knew she would get an Android just to make them happy, but she was going to make them work for it.

At one point as they had her cornered beside a Lenovo display while they were trying to compare specs between a few finalist choices a couple of guys came into the store. The three of them barely glanced up, more interested in the phones they were looking over than in strangers, but after a few moments one of the guys noticed the three beautiful girls in the corner of the store and nudged his friend and the two began to saunter over. They had cocky grins firmly fixed on their faces and Haku began to feel decidedly uncomfortable. She had been approached by guys before when attending University of course but in those times she had had the excuse of needing to be somewhere for class or study to utilize as needed. These sorts of encounters made her extremely uneasy. The other two girls picked up on her disquiet an glanced from her toward the direction she was looking. Miku let out a sigh and Luka rolled her eyes. It seemed they weren't strangers to such looks from guys either.

"Hello there, pretty ladies." The one who had pointed at them said in a tone of voice practically dripping with cockyness. "We couldn't help but notice your radiance the moment we came in, so brightly does your beauty shine. May I ask the names of such divine creatures as yourselves?"

Miku's head rolled backward and she stared at the ceiling and let out a long exaggerated groan, her light blue side ponytails swaying back to dangle behind her to the backs of her knees. Luka just stared at the man with an expression so full of annoyance it was a wonder he could maintain his cocky self satisfied smirk. Haku didn't know what to do as her anxiety began to mount so she wrapped herself in her outwardly serene mask of calm and didn't say anything.

"Look, we're pretty busy right now, so if you wouldn't mind leaving us to our shopping?" The idol asked, not at all impolitely even if her annoyance seeped into her tone. She turned her back on the guys, her cascading pink ponytail swishing behind her as she did.

Haku's gaze slid down toward the floor trying to avoid catching direct attention and noticed that Miku was holding one of the Androids she had been heavily considering a little while ago. She tapped Miku's arm gently and the pretty blue haired girl looked to her, and when she caught her green eyed gaze she pointed at the one in her hands. "That one."

Miku blinked down at the phone she held before looking back up and giving a nod of understanding. She knew Haku wanted to leave and get out of this situation as much as she wanted to pick a phone and go, so the three of them turned to leave. The second guy reached out in protest, catching Miku's arm as she brushed past him. "Hey don't be like that, we were just being friendly and asking your names." He said in a cocky sort of drawl that matched his friend's almost exactly.

"Don't touch her!" Luka glared at the same time as Miku shook her arm free with a heated "Let me go!" They tried to walk away but the guys followed them. They tried to get some distance moving around the store but they couldn't seem to get anywhere without the boys staying beside them. Haku began to feel hunted as they moved around a display stand and the guys came up on them from either side trying to cut off their escape routes. They seemed trapped for a moment and had no choice but to turn back toward them.

"Look ladies, we're just trying to get to know you a little better that's all, maybe go out and have some fun."

Haku tensed and felt an instinctive urge to lash out but Luka got there first putting herself between the guys and Haku and Miku. The idol's blue eyes were ice now and her crystal voice was just as cold. "It's very clear what the two of you were 'only just' doing. We tried to be polite, now leave us alone."

"What's the matter, baby?" The first guy said, leaning in far closer to Luka than politeness would allow for. "You never had a good time before? We just want to show you a good time, that's all."

Their cocky smiles held firm as Luka stared them down and Haku wondered if this was going to turn ugly. Her stomach was tying itself in knots and she didn't know how long she could keep ahold of her outwardly serene mask. If any of them would make that particular decision it would be Luka, as the pink haired beauty tended to naturally take the lead between the three of them, but Miku acted first. Ever the impulsive one of the three of them she slid up beside Luka and wrapped an arm around the idol's middle with a withering look at the guys. "Of course we like to have a good time," She said, and her lips pulled up in a wicked sort of smirk. "We just have all of that we need between the three of us already." And with that she leaned up to Luka to press her lips against the somewhat taller girl's own. If Luka was surprised she didn't show it, leaning down into the kiss and letting her lips part slightly so their tongues could meet.

The guys' eyes widened in surprise and Haku felt the tone shift in the air dramatically as they became at once affronted and aroused. She couldn't have said what exactly about it made her skin crawl but their arousal at the view of her lovers made her feel distinctly dirty. After a moment or two the other two girls parted and they leaned back to take Haku around the waist too. Haku thought they might have meant to kiss her next but she felt so grossed out by the guys she didn't think she could have stood it to have their excitement aimed at her. One look at her flushed face and the other two girls picked up on that and didn't press it, either their instincts as Vocaloids or their intuition as girlfriends guiding them in that moment, but they held onto her and Haku let them hold her between them.

Luka aimed a mischievous smile of her own at the guys and made a gentle shooing motion at them with the hand not around Haku's waist. "So you see? We really don't need you."

Miku held up an admonishing finger in the air and shook it side to side. "Sorry boys, but you see how it is."

With that they turned Haku around and herded her toward the checkout counter with the display phones still in their hands. As they walked away there was a moment of silence before she distinctly heard the guys behind them exchange heated whispers.

"Whoa! Total lesbos, but that was super hot man!"

"Wait… is that… is that Megurine Luka?!"

"What?! No way!"

"No man, I think it is!"

"How do you know?"

"My sister is a total idol fanatic. I think the other one is Hatsune Miku!"

The other one laughed. "Dude! Yeah sure, your "sister" is a total idol fanatic. Riiiiiiiiiight."

"Dude, shut up! I'm telling you I recognize them now!"

"Oh yeah? Then who is the white haired one? She's so mysterious and exotic."

"I don't know, but if the other two are idols she has to be too."

They studiously ignored the guys as the cashier, a pretty woman with long pale hair and pale blue eyes who was maybe a few years older than Haku, rang them up. It took several minutes to get all the codes scanned in the system and the changes made to Haku's cell phone account during which there was more heated whispers behind them, then finally the guys stalked out of the store. Haku couldn't help but breathe a little bit easier as they left, probably in search of other easier prey. She glanced at the other two girls with a concerned look in her eyes. "What if they say something? They recognized you."

Luka gave a dismissive shrug and threw a dirty look after the overly aggressive guys though they were no longer in line of sight. "Deny it. It's their word against mine." She paused a moment before shrugging again. "Or not. Who cares? Times change. I don't think it would matter to my fanbase."

Miku eyed the pink haired beauty askance. "Maybe. It's certainly not like it used to be, but there is still a lot of hate and judgement out there."

Luka aimed a smile at Miku. "Are you saying you're ashamed to be seen in public with me?"

Miku stuck her tongue out at the idol. "Of course not! I'm just concerned for you, that's all. I don't want you to get in trouble."

Luka's smile widened. "That's sweet, Miku-chin, but don't worry. There are a lot of famous people that have come out recently, and they're still around. I doubt it would change much for me. I'd lose some fans because of it I'm sure, but I'd gain others also because of it."

"Just promise me you'll be careful?" Haku interjected, laying a hand on Luka's arm, and the idol leaned in to brush her lips across Haku's. She flushed deeply but returned the sweet peck as Luka leaned back and turned her smile on the snowy haired girl.

"I will be careful."

At that moment the clerk turned back toward them from her computer. She had taken the display models from them and now slid a box forward on the counter, the lid off and Haku's new Android nestled in it, switched on and ready to go. "Here you are, and thank you for shopping." Haku murmured a thank you but as the three of them started to prepare to go, Luka and Miku working on producing payment, but the clerk stopped them. "I…" She glanced around nervously to make sure no one had come in, but the store was still empty aside from the four of them. "I'm sorry if I'm out of line, but I just want to say I think you girls are really brave."

They blinked at each other before looking back to the clerk. "Why?" Miku asked.

The clerk reached into her pocket and took out an iPod. She woke it up and switched to her albums and held it up for them to see. The biggest folder was one that said "Idol Favs" which she tapped to open, and the first two at the top bigger than the rest were titled "Megurine Luka" and "Hatsune Miku." Luka and MIku's faces heated a bit and Haku looked worried, but the clerk made a soothing motion with her hands as she put her iPod back in her pocket. "I think you two are some of the best idols that have ever been, Megurine-san, Hatsune-san. Those guys come around here a lot, they hang out at the mall trying to pick up girls. They've even hit on me a time or two." She winced to show what she thought of that and shook her head. "Anyway, I have a… a family member… who is… who is gay…" she swallowed hard, her cheeks catching fire, but she rushed on. "I just think you're both really brave, that's all, and so are you miss…?" She aimed the last at Haku.

"Yowane Haku…" Haku said faintly, not sure what to make of this.

"I've never heard of you, Yowane-san. Are you a new idol?" She asked curiously.

Haku shook her head but Luka took her arm and rode over any response she might have made. "That's right, she's new, and the three of us are starting a collaboration. Keep an eye out for us okay?"

The clerk's face lit up and she nodded, then leaned down and produced an album from under the counter, presumably from her handbag. It was a CD that Haku instantly recognized. She had the same one, one that was very dear to her. "The Best of Megurine Luka." The clerk looked hopefully at them. "Would you… would you…" She choked out.

Miku let out a bubbly laugh and leaned over to grab a pen to hold out for Luka, who took it with a smile. "What's your name?"

"A-Aria Ia!" She squeaked, and Luka took out the CD cover from the plastic case and wrote in a smooth flowing script, "Always follow your heart, Aria Ia." Then signed her name beneath it. The clerk began to reach for it excitedly but Miku reached over impulsively and grabbed the pen from Luka and signed her name too, 'Hatsune Miku' in a script just as bubbly and curvy as the girl herself. Then the pretty blue haired girl held the pen out to Haku with a smile.

"You too, Haku-chin!" Miku giggled. Haku's face was still hot and she glanced at the clerk who nodded eagerly, so she took the pen and signed 'Yowane Haku' in her elegant writing beside the other two signatures.

The clerk let out a squeal of delight and reverently put the CD cover back together and placed the album gently back into her bag. Luka nudged Haku's side gently with an elbow. "Your first autograph, Haku-chin, and we haven't even gotten you on stage yet." Her crystal voice was playful and Haku tried to keep her cheeks from heating worse. It wasn't actually her first, the crowd at the festival where they had played for the drummers had wanted her to sign a few things, but she didn't the the other two had seen and she didn't want to bring it up right then. She didn't have an answer so she busied herself with picking up her new phone and going over it while Miku and Luka produced credit cards to pay for it. Once they had completed the transaction they turned to go.

"Thank you so much for stopping in today! I hope you do well, Yowane-san!" Ia called as they were walking away. Miku aimed a smile and a wave over her shoulder, but Ia's well wish for her as a new idol was so sincere it seemed to reach something inside Haku and the white haired girl froze. Luka and Miku stopped as she did and looked at her in askance, and Haku turned around to go back to the counter. She had a feeling...

"Aria-san, did you know that Luka-chin has a performance later this evening?"

Ia's face fell as she looked at Haku. "Yes, I know. I really wanted to go, but…"

"But?" Haku prompted.

Ia let out a resigned sigh. "My payday was a week after the tickets went on sale. By the time I could afford them the venue had sold out." She looked apologetically at Luka. "I'm so sorry, Megurine-san, I really wanted to go, I'm such a fan."

Haku's feeling had been right but there was more to it than that, she was absolutely certain, but this was a first step. The rest would come later in the weeks to follow she was sure, but they had to start here. She turned around to look at Luka, her red eyes full of intense meaning, and Luka picked up on it instantly. Haku knew she could see how important it was to her now, and the idol turned a smile on the clerk. "Do you still want to go? That is, if you haven't made other plans already?"

Ia's dark eyes widened in surprise. "No, I'd love to go if I could!" She had the look on her face of someone who was suddenly very hopeful but trying not to look too hopeful incase it wasn't what they thought.

Luka's smile turned kindly and she reached into her front pocket to retrieve her wallet once more. "Well, I'm sure you know that performers can invite special guests to our shows. We get a few seats reserved for us for friends and family." She pulled two slips of paper out of the wallet, tickets with the name of the venue and Luka's show time printed on them. "It would make me happy if you would come as my guest, and bring someone special if you'd like." She set the tickets on the counter and slid them toward the other woman.

Ia's eyes widened even further and she looked up at Luka. "Really? I can really have these? Is it truly okay?"

Luka laughed softly, a crystalline ring that melted Haku's insides with it's beautiful kindness. "Yes of course. Please, I would be honored."

Ia reached out for them but her hand froze hovering over the slips of paper. "Oh, but…" She protested as a thought occurred to her. "Don't you need these for Yowane-san and Hatsune-san since you three are...?" She blushed prettily then changed what she had been saying. "Wouldn't you want them to be there with you?"

Miku looked to Luka and pretended to be offended. "You're giving away our tickets?! How could you!"

Luka giggled at Miku's obvious pretense and shook her head. "They don't need tickets, they're other idols, they're on a list. Really, it's okay Aria-san. I insist."

Ia took the tickets and clutched them to herself with a smile for Luka. "You are so very kind, thank you so much!" She turned her warm smile to Haku. "And you too, Yowane-san, thank you."

Once they had made their courtesies and left Haku fiddled with her new phone on the way back through the mall and out to the parking lot, but only part of her mind was on it. She taped buttons by rote, logging in to her cloud accounts and authenticating them, getting her email set up and restoring a backup of her code breaking program. She would have to edit it to work from an Android since she had initially written it for her old iPhone but she could do that later. Her thumbs kept twitching as she had to retrain old muscle memory from her iPhone but that would go away given time and she had to admit, at least privately to herself, that this Android was actually pretty sleek and shiny.

Her mind was actually on Ia as they walked, wondering about the girl and what that feeling had been about. She wasn't entirely sure what had driven her to have Luka give her tickets, but she just knew there was more to come of their chance meeting of the pale haired girl. She had called them brave, but she was the one that had spoken first when the three of them had been behaving so rudely in public, nevermind that those two guys had caused it. She still worried that they had recognized her lovers but the idol didn't seem concerned so she tried not to dwell on it too much. Miku and Luka were walking slightly ahead of her as she fiddled with her phone and Haku's ears pricked up as she heard them mention Ia.

"Do you think she really was asking for a family member, or was it a cover for herself?" Miku mused curiously. She was watching the vendor stalls idly as they passed by them on their way out of the mall.

"Who knows?" Luka replied. "She certainly couldn't have come out and said it while she was actively on the job could she?"

"I guess not." Miku murmured as they passed a stand of hats. She slowed ever so slightly to look at a fuzzy glittery blue one before they moved on. "I guess she just didn't really seem the type to me you know? But I hadn't really thought about it before."

"The type?" Luka asked with a small smile. She sidestepped by reflex to avoid a group of younger teenagers passing by them. Haku shifted her arm protective of her new phone but they didn't brush against her as they passed. "What were you expecting, Miku-chin? A sign or something?"

Miku sighed and shook her head. "No I don't mean that, I just meant that… I mean… isn't there some way to tell? Once you know from… personal experience I mean?" She blushed.

"I don't know. It's not like it's some kind of superpower. It's probably more like a sense that develops over time. The more you use it the stronger it gets. Until then you won't know if others are or aren't."

"If others are?" Miku asked as she got distracted by a candy cart. They stopped to look but she seemed preoccupied by the thought. "... What about us? Are we…?'

Luka didn't seem to have an answer for that. The pink haired beauty tilted her head at Miku for a moment but it became apparent there was no easy response. Haku caught the vendor eying them askance as they stood there at his cart seemingly idly and she reached out to grab three boxes of strawberry pocky. She fished a few coins out of a pocket to pay him as the other two got wind of the mood but Haku collected her change, pushed a box into each of their hands then hustled them away. Once they were out in the parking lot Luka began fiddling with her box, giving Haku a smile as she tore it open, then glanced at Miku. "Does it really bother you? That we... might be?" Neither of the other two missed Luka's inclusive 'we' and it felt nice.

Miku already had a pink stick sticking out of her mouth, sucking on the icting in thought. "I dunno. But I guess that's how other people will see me from now on, huh? See us." She amended that last with a glance at the other two, angling their steps to take them through the lot toward the Ferrari. "I guess I was just thinking about it because those guys recognized me. If we're all going to be idols I'll have to figure out what I think about that. I heard that one guy call us 'total lesbos' and it got me thinking."

"Is that how you think of yourself? As a lesbian?" Luka asked, her tone soft as she drew a pocky out of her box. Haku stuck her own box into a parka pocket unopened. She might have been more interested in it but her attention was split between the other two girls and the new phone she held, the conversation seemingly more blunt now that they were in the parking lot with less ears to overhear.

Miku considered the question for a moment before letting out a sigh and shaking her head, popping the end of the biscuit stick into her mouth. "I don't know. I can't imagine myself being with a guy at all, but I can't see myself with other girls right now either. I'm already involved with the two most wonderful and beautiful women in the world." She trailed off as they reached the Ferrari and her cheeks heated a bit. She had been speaking her thoughts as fast as she had them again, as she so often did speaking before she thought, not purposefully trying to compliment them.

Haku tried to hide a smile but Luka giggled out right and moved to press Miku back against the car with her body as she reached up a hand to the pretty light blue haired girl's cheek. "We feel the same way about you." She said playfully and gave Miku a little kiss.

Miku sighed happily and nosed at Luka's cheek as the idol pulled away. "Mmmm, you taste like strawberry pocky."

Haku blinked at them a moment or two and tilted her head. "I wonder why we haven't gotten more reactions like that?"

"What do you mean?" Luka asked. "The guys in the store?"

Haku shook her head, "Not just that, but the… the lesbian thing." She blushed slightly, but she supposed she should get used to hearing it, to thinking it. She was now… wasn't she?

"What about it?" Miku wanted to know.

"Well… we haven't been as discrete as we could be… I mean I kissed you both in front of everyone at the Compound when I fought Juon-san and no one has said anything about it. Should… or er… wouldn't someone have said something?"

They both tilted their heads at the exact same moment in the exact same way at the exact same angle and Haku blinked and couldn't stop a giggle at them. Miku finally gave a shrug and shook her head. "I don't know, maybe they still will. But if anyone's mean to us about it daddy will sort it out." She giggled and turned to pull the driver side door open. Haku perked up and moved forward and Miku cast a glance over her shoulder. "Nuh uh, Haku-chin. My turn!" She let out another giggle and jumped in behind the wheel. Haku sighed and moved around the car, beating Luka to the passenger door and getting in first. If it was Miku's turn to drive then it was Haku's turn in the middle because Luka had been in the middle on the way here. It was so uncomfortable being jammed in the center in a car made for two, but she didn't complain. The three of them shared everything, took turns with everything. They all took great pains to make sure that they were all absolutely equal in their new fledgling relationship, and Haku found even when she was uncomfortable she was still happy if she could please the other two.

They got themselves situated and Miku slipped her ID chip into the chip reader on the dash but before she could hit the engine start button Haku leaned over against her and wrapped her arms around her shoulders, smooth parka material sliding against slick windbreaker. Miku looked up in surprise but Haku didn't give her much time to think before pressing her lips to Miku's. She felt the other girl melt in her arms and she was sure she did the same but she held the kiss for a long loving moment before giving Miku's lips a little lick with the tip of her tongue and pulling away. Miku was flushed faintly and she giggled again, and Haku turned around in her seat to wrap her arms around Luka next. The pink haired beauty seemed to be waiting for it after seeing them at it and she responded more intensely than Miku had in her surprise. The idol's tongue slipped through Haku's lips to roll against her own and they squeezed each other around the middle in the embrace before parting. When Haku leaned back breathily she gulped air and looked from one to the other. "Thank you for my new phone."

They smiled their understanding and each squeezed one of her hands. Then Miku started the engine and the Ferrari roared to life. She pulled them out of the parking lot then angled them out onto the street going at a much more measured pace than Haku had earlier. Silence descended on them for a bit as each girl sat ponderously with her thoughts, but it was a comfortable silence, a companionable one. Haku found to her delight that her new Android was of a type that could be rooted without connection to a computer and she downloaded the files needed and started the process. The screen blanked out then letters and symbols began scrolling by. Luka glanced down at the phone in her lap curiously.

"What happened to your new phone?" She asked with a touch of concern in her voice, a stick of pocky held frozen in her hand for the moment.

Haku smiled up at her. "Nothing, I'm just getting ready to install a few things."

Miku glanced over at the letters and numbers popping up on the screen then rolled her eyes. "You only just got the thing Haku-chin, don't you want to wait a few minutes before you void it's warranty?"

Luka looked from Miku to Haku then down to the phone screen and understanding bloomed on her beautiful face. "Looks like it's too late for that." She sounded more amused than anything but she still shot Haku an admonitory look. Haku just smiled back at her, red eyes wide and innocent. The effect was interrupted when Miku took a turn into a main street and suddenly they jerked to a halt at the traffic jam they found themselves in. The blue haired girl groaned and Luka anxiously checked the time on the clock on the dashboard display. "I need to be in makeup in thirty minutes." Luka's crystal voice held a note of anxiety, a small note, but any at all was telling for the usually composed and in control idol.

"I know." Miku moaned and twisted in her seat trying to see if they had any options.

"Can you get us there in time?" Luka asked twisting the opposite way to look out the other window.

"I don't know." Came Miku's anxious answer.

"Maybe we should have let Haku-chin drive." Luka said wryly, and Haku looked up hopefully.

"And how are we supposed to trade spots in here? We barely all fit as it is." Miku was right, and Haku looked down at her new phone in disappointment. The rooting process had finished and the Android waa rebooting.

"If you could turn here we could go down a few blocks and avoid the busy streets." Luka suggested pointing off to a turn at their right.

"I'm trying but this guy won't let me over!" Miku complained. She was turning the wheel a tiny bit at a time trying to inch into the lane but every time she started to manage it the car behind them would edge up a bit and block them. The tension levels in the Ferrari were mounting and Haku finally decided to do something about it. She reached over top of Luka's lap and pushed the window control to lower it. She had to get up on her knees so she was bending over the idol's lap in order to get her face out the window, then looked at the car slightly behind them. It wasn't a large vehicle, and Haku pursed her lips and let out a low note, almost as low and deep as she could without it being perceptible to normal human hearing ranges. "Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu." She stretched it out and the sonic vibration was pitched to avoid damage to any property but it still had a concussive effect. The result was like suddenly walking into a wall and the car stopped dead as though it were chained to the spot. The man inside began to get angry checking his dashboard displays as though they could tell him what was wrong, but as long as a Haku maintained the note he was stuck unless someone gave him enough room to back up.

"She's got him!" Luka giggled and gestured to the right. "You can get over while he's stuck!" Miku was cranking the wheel over even before Luka had finished saying it and a moment later they were cruising down an alleyway. Haku pulled her head back in from the window and tried to resume her seat but Luka grabbed her around the middle and pressed her face into her side in a sort of sideways hug. "That was quick thinking, Haku-chin!"

Haku squeaked as she felt a pinch on her rear that made her squirm in place. "Awesome job Haku-chin!" Came Miku's wind chime voice. "I would never have thought to use a sonic wave like that!"

"Let me go so I can sit down properly!" Haku complained, but even still she felt warm in Luka's arms and didn't make a move to pull away until the idol released her, and even then she couldn't help but let out a regretful little sigh. The pink haired beauty gave her a knowing smile and a wink as her bottom hit the seat again.

"I suppose I'll just have to wait until later for that, hmmmm?" Luka's smile turned coy and Haku blushed prettily but she squirmed in her seat a tiny bit. On her other side Miku let out a giggle, a very deliberate and suggestive giggle.

The venue was called Hibikase, and Haku thought it poetically appropriate. The sign itself was just the letters made of wide thick plastic lit from within towering over the sloped roof of the huge five story building. The trim was a kaleidoscope spray around the entire outside along the full spectrum of colors blended so you couldn't quite tell where one ended and the next began as blue blended into green blended into yellow into orange into red into purple then back to blue over and over again. Posters and event signs were all over the front face all decorated with various musical notes scales and symbols and there was already a line of waiting people wrapping around it and down the block. The pink haired beauty directed them around to the rear parking where there was a spot reserved for show talent beside a rear door that general public weren't allowed to access. It was long enough for a limo but Luka didn't have a precession tonight.

"This is my favorite venue." Luka told them as Miku cut the engine and they slid out of the Ferrari. "It's surprisingly clean, and they treat the talent really well." She got no further chance than that to explain as the bouncer at the back door saw who was getting out of the Ferrari and a grin split his broad face nearly in two.

"Megurine-san!" He called out, and Haku stared up, and up, and up at him. She had thought Miku's father was a tall man, but this guy topped him by at least a full head. He was also the burliest man she had ever seen in her entire life; shoulders, chest, arms, legs, stomach, thighs, everything about him was just huge, but even with all that there was no part of him anywhere that she would have called fat. He was simply massive in all proportions.

Luka smiled up at him as they walked up. "Good evening, Keitana-san." She said with a warmth that belied her formal tone. "I'd like to introduce you to my- closest friends." The catch in her wording was so barely there that Haku doubted anyone would have noticed it, but she did, and from the look on Miku's face the pretty blue haired girl had too. Luka went on, gesturing them forward. "This is Hatsune Miku," She gestured and Miku put her hands to her middle and gave a formal bow. "And Yowane Haku." She gestured and Haku emulated Miku. Then Luka looked to them and gestured at the massive bouncer. "This is Keitana Keiji."

"Hatsune Miku!" He boomed, his voice just as deep and burly as he himself was. "Of course I've seen you before! Not just on the news either, you played at the Kodana once when Keija and I were bouncers there a few years back."

Miku perked up a bit. "Oh? I played the Kodana a few times, I don't remember you, I'm so sorry!"

Keiji laughed again just as loudly as before, his booming voice bouncing off the concrete of the parking lot and the concrete walls of the back of the building. "Oh don't worry, I wasn't on the door that night, I forgive you!"

Miku actually looked relieved and Haku was smiling. She hadn't expected the big man to address her as she wasn't an idol or ex-idol like the other two, but he did turn to her. "And you, Yowane-san! What venues have you played? I don't recognize you, but maybe I've worked at one or two?"

Haku flushed faintly and looked up at him then shook her head. "I'm… I'm not…" She wasn't sure what to say to that, but as usual Luka stepped in smoothly, taking her arm as she had in the store earlier with a smile for the big man.

"Haku-chin is a new idol, we haven't gotten her first jobs booked yet."

Keiji gave a knowing nod and looked her up and down. "Well she's certainly got the look, that's for sure." He smiled at Haku and she blinked her red eyes in response but didn't say anything. She still wasn't used to taking compliments having spent the entirety of her shut in life in the belief that she was nothing special, but the big bouncer didn't seem to expect anything in response.

"Do you know if Hojoto-san has arrived yet?" Luka asked and got a shake of the head in response.

"Nah not that I know of, and I didn't see her name on the roster. Maybe she's tied up with business?" He hiked a thumb over his shoulder at the door behind him. "Anyway, Keija's in the lounge behind the rear stage, I imagine he'll get you settled. I don't want to keep you, Megurine-san." He arched an eyebrow at that and then asked with a small grin. "That is unless you've finally come to your senses about marrying me?"

Haku flushed bright red in surprise and saw Miku's face darkening, but Luka let out a laugh at what was apparently an inside joke. "I told you before Keitana-san, you're not my type, but if I ever get desperate enough I'll call you." Haku and Miku gasped at Luka's rudeness but Keiji laughed harder than ever and waved them through the door, holding it open for them with a huge grin that made his big ears wiggle when he bobbed his head. Once they were through the door and it had closed behind them Luka gestured off toward a hallway to one side. "The dressing rooms are through here, you can wait with me there while we change and do makeup then we'll get Keitana-san, the other one, to show you to your seats."

Luka turned to lead them off but Miku apparently wasn't satisfied, flinging her arm back the way they had come as they walked. "What was all that about marrying and desperation all about?" She demanded, her steel will poking out a bit from her bubbly exterior. Haku wanted to know just as much but she was content to let Miku do the questioning.

The idol was apparently unperturbed by the heat in the other girl's tone though. She let out another crystalline giggle and shook her head, her loose flowing pink ponytail shifting behind her back. "Just a joke, don't take it seriously. About a year and a half ago I had a stalker follow me out to the parking lot after a show who accosted me. He didn't manage anything, and not because of my abilities either. Those two big men can move faster than they look, and Keitana-san was there before anything could happen. He pretended he was my husband to scare the guy off, and afterward it just sorta became a joke. He says it every time I see him, that I should wise up and marry him for real. It's just a joke."

Haku felt relief, wondering at the oddity of having been feeling jealousy in the first place. The three of them were firmly together now after all, weren't they? What was there to be jealous about? She felt embarrassed at her own insecurities, and judging by the look on Miku's face she was having similar thoughts and feelings. Luka however didn't notice as she led the way through the hallway to a flight of stairs that took them up to a richly dark carpeted area with sparkles woven into it that glittered in every color on the spectrum. The walls were a bright blue and the doors they passed all black, and one of them at the end of a side hall they turned down had Luka's name on it engraved on a plaque that slid into a holder attached to the door that could be swapped out at need. She opened the door and they went in. The dressing room was just as lavish as the rest of the building, with a couple of plush faux leather couches and a makeup stand with bright bulbs all around it. A wardrobe stood in one corner stretching from floor to ceiling and positioned in such a way that Haku wasn't entirely sure if it was built into the wall or just stood there like it was, and a door to one side stood open a crack to show a bathroom. A small refreshment bar completed the room's furnishings, and even Miku whistled appreciatively as they came in.

"I think I played the wrong venues!" The blue haired girl exclaimed which got a giggle from Luka as she shut the door behind them.

"One of the many reasons this is my favorite venue. They keep this room reserved for me because I play here so much, even though I'm not here all that often over all. The owner said one night of me playing here nets him as much as any other weekend combined and with so many free rooms he doesn't mind." The idol explained as she moved over to the wardrobe and threw it open. Dresses lined the inside, all of them with tags on the sleeves that had dates and times written on them to show they had all been cleaned and pressed in the past twenty four hours. Luka rifled through them until she found a red one with gold and black lace trim and embroidery that would leave her shoulders and arms bare that had matching elbow gloves. She turned to hang it on a rack beside the wardrobe before going back to the dresses once more. She pondered for a moment then looked over her shoulder at the two. "Hmmmm… for tonight… I think white and sky blue for Miku-chin aaaaaaaaaand maybe lilac for Haku-chin?" She withdrew two of the dresses and held them up to the other two, and Haku could see her own startled expression mirrored on Miku's face.

"But… why are we changing?" Miku wanted to know. "It's your show."

Luka effected a playful pout, though she was clearly not upset. "You don't want to dress up for my show?"

They relented and the white dress with silver lace and sky blue trim went onto the rack beside the red black and gold one, but they both shook their heads at the lilac one and it went back into the wardrobe. Then Miku pointed past them into the line. "There, that one. The black and gold." Luka pulled it out and held it up to Haku before nodding and adding it to the rack. It was similar to the one she had bought for herself not long ago, Haku thought, but not too similar. The dresses all had matching elbow gloves, lacy leggings, a thin waist wrap that held up a gauzy bow of the same colors behind them, and there were an assortment of heeled slippers inside the wardrobe to match. There was even a drawer with various ribbons and they selected out matching bows to tie around their ponytails.

"Yes, I think so, good eye Miku-chin!" She moved the rack out into the middle of the room so they could change, and though they had done so in each other's presence ever since the other night when they had first slept together it still caused heat to rise within all three of them to watch the other two peeling off their clothing. Miku very deliberately let them get a look at her as she changed, her smaller frame still proportionately striking in ways that drew the eye, and Luka was even playful as she bent in revealing ways while she changed. Haku couldn't stop staring, but neither could they, and she tried to be as nonchalant about it as they were but she had to force herself not to hurry in embarrassment. They giggled at her modesty but they finished changing and Luka pulled out a drawer inside the wardrobe that held various accessories. Miku got a few sapphires for earrings and necklace and even a silver bracelet with a couple set in it. Haku picked out a few diamond teardrop earrings and a matching necklace that didn't dangle quite as far as Miku's so that the teardrops on it would rest in the right spot. Luka took ruby earring studs and a necklace of both diamonds and rubies that would have been a choker if it were a bare couple of finger widths shorter. It was fun dressing up in such beautiful things especially with her girlfriends.

A knock came at the door and when Luka called in response a woman several years older than them stuck her head in. She had dark hair and eyes much like she herself used to have Haku couldn't help but notice, and she smiled kindly. "I'm here to do your makeup?" Haku couldn't tell if it was a question or a statement but Luka waved her in and she shut the door behind her as she came over. She motioned Luka into the makeup stand's chair and made sure the light was right before setting out the various powders and pastes and blushes and glosses and the like on the stand.

"Are you new here? I haven't seen you before." The idol asked curiously.

The kind looking woman nodded as she spread out a shoulder cloth to wrap around Luka's neck to avoid getting any makeup on her dress and began to dab at Luka's face, the pink haired beauty keeping still for her to work. "Yes, I just started a few weeks ago, but I assure you I've been doing this for awhile and I won't make you look bad."

Luka smiled briefly but otherwise held still. "Oh I wasn't concerned, you have to be good to work here, don't worry. I was just curious." The woman smiled again and went about her work until Luka asked another question. "I'm Megurine Luka, and these are my- closest friends, Hatsune Miku and Yowane Haku." She made introductions as she had before, and again with that brief almost undetectable slip in the words.

The woman bobbed a nod as she worked, peering from various angles as she worked her brushes like the art it was. "Of course I recognize you, Megurine-san, and you too Hatsune-san." She said without looking around. "I'm sorry Yowane-san but I don't think I've seen you before…?" Haku shook her head but didn't have an answer and the woman continued. "My name is Mekita Yuki. I'm pleased to meet you all formally."

They chatted idly while Yuki finished doing Luka's makeup, then the idol surprised them by asking her to do the other two as well. They blinked in surprise as they had with the dresses but Luka affected her fake pout again and they relented as they had before. After all they did want to look nice for her show, so they sat through the same treatment as she had. Once Yuki was done she smiled and bowed her way out. Luka smiled at them, "You two look so beautiful." She said.

Miku smiled and flushed lightly, Haku just flushed. "Not as much as you." She mumbled, speaking for the first time since they'd gotten there.

The others beamed at her and they moved closer, taking each other's hands in one gloved grip between the three of them. "I wish we hadn't just had our makeup done, or at least that I'd gotten kisses before hand." Miku muttered sullenly but playfully, and they all giggled.

Luka led the way out of the dressing room to go find the other bouncer. It turned out that Keija was just as massive and burly as his brother, twins in every way. He smiled at Haku's round red eyed stare after introductions were made and he boomed out, "You should see our mother." He gave a hilarious wink before turning to lead them to their seats.

"I've got to get to the stage, but I'll look for you." Luka promised, and they squeezed hands one more time before Miku and Haku turned to follow Keija.

Their seats turned out to be front and dead center, the best possible seats in the house. The stage was shaped like a massive music note with the big round part the bottom of it and the top disappearing behind the curtain. Everything was black and blue an lit up in the same color spray scheme of lights that mirrored the trim and the carpet glitter. The curtain was black and shimmered in the colored lights, and as Keija left them to sit they turned to watch and wait for the show to start with the din of various low conversations all around them throughout the giant room as people chatted idly while waiting. The people around them had likely already been waiting for a long time but as Miku and Haku had been with Luka during her entire preparatory process they didn't have to wait long, perhaps ten minutes at most before the lights grew super dim throughout the seating areas and the din of conversation faded out as spotlights hit the black curtain. The first few notes of Gishin'anki filled the giant room and a cheer went up as the music washed over the crowd. Haku felt tingles, this was one of her favorites. The shimmering black curtain parted in half to reveal Luka standing center stage in the song's starting pose, a smile on her lips and an intensity to her blue eyes. The spotlights converged on her and she began to dance, her crystalline voice filling the room over the music, enhanced by a tiny microphone clipped over her ear. As a Vocaloid she didn't need it, but she was using it for appearance sake. "Asobasa ta shisen wa maadaa, (That idle gaze of yours,)" Her arm went up and out and she rotated her shoulders as she swayed her hips in a rolling dance step out to the middle of the round part of the music note shaped stage. Haku's breath was coming fast and her heart picked up it's pace at the sight. She had watched any number of video clips online of her favorite idol, but to see her live like this… it was a private dream come true, one she had had for a very long time.

Luka's dancing and stage presence could best be described as smooth and graceful. Every step, every twist, every motion she made flowed in perfect harmony with the music, and she looked absolutely radiant in the spotlight. Haku couldn't help but sing along softly, and she wasn't the only one. Miku was doing the same beside her, the both of them tapping their feet in time and swaying their heads and shoulders with Luka's steps. She could hear other people in the crowd singing along, but it was faint buried deep beneath the music. Luka caught their eyes a number of times and every time she locked eyes for a moment with Haku she felt her heart skip a beat.

Luka moved from song to song in a flawless progression that drew the crowd to her more and more as each went by. Haku could both feel the draw and sense it at the same time. For an hour the performance went on, an hour and a half, two. The idol never wavered, never missed a beat, her flowing pink ponytail swaying and swishing around her as she spun and danced the length of the stage back and forth. There was no doubt about it, seeing a video was a pale thing compared to the reality of being there live, and Haku couldn't have been happier to be where she was right then.

The last few notes of Pink Cat faded as Luka struck a cat like pose and the music shifted to a transitional tuneless beat. She straightened up and beamed at the crowd, walking the length of the stage several times and posing. "You've all been so great tonight! I hope you all had a wonderful time!" She turned with a swish of pink hair like she was going to exit stage but at the first shout of encore she whirled back around with a delighted smile. "More you say?!" The crowd roared it's enthusiasm and Luka's smile turned positively devious. "Well you have been an awesome crowd… what if…" she paused a moment as though an idea had just occurred to her, raising a hand to tap a finger against the tip of her nose. Haku could see right through the pretense though, the idol had already thought this out. "What if we did something truly special tonight? Something really really wonderful?" The crowd roared it's approval and Luka suddenly shifted her hand to point right at Miku. "Then it gives me great pleasure tonight to bring up to the stag someone very dear to me, and to officially announce the triumphant return of Hatsune Miku to the idol spotlight!"

"Eh?!" Miku's green eyes went wide as a spotlight hit her and the crowd positively exploded with cheers and applause, whistles and shouts of pleasure. Her shock was genuine, she'd had absolutely no idea this was going to happen, but with every eye on her she recovered quickly, old habits from her previous time as an idol kicking in. She bounded to her feet all smiles and waving at the crowd with both hands. Haku remembered Hojoto-san saying no one had blamed Miku for what happened to her before, whatever that had been, and it seemed that was true based on the crowd's enthusiastic reaction. Miku blinked as a hand came into view above her and she turned to see Luka leaning down over the edge of the stage to help her up. Miku grinned and took the hand and put her other on the stage edge to get up. As she stood beside Luka a stage hand rushed out to hand Miku an ear clip like Luka's and she put it on.

"Hi everyone!" Miku's chime like voice came over the speakers. "I'm back! Did you all miss me?!" They roared back and she giggled in delight. Haku thought she looked so natural on stage that it was like she was born to be up there. They both belonged up there, there was no doubt.

Luka made some kind of signal upwards with her hands, one with three fingers up and the other with one. Apparently now that the show was over and Luka had done something no one expected she was having to direct the encore herself, but she seemed to have it all thought out already. There was a moment's pause then the transition music faded out as the first few notes to Higaimouzou Keitai Joshi hit the room and a brief cheer went up before silence fell for Cellphone Girl. Luka stepped back to let Miku start center stage, and they struck similar starting poses, knees slightly bent and turned slightly to the side, one hand on a hip the other up by their heads, Luka's behind hers and Miku's with her fingers spread wide before her face. As they began to move to the beat she found herself in awe. She had seen Luka share the stage before but never with this degree of emotional energy. Maybe it was because they were both Vocaloids, or maybe because they were lovers, but the result was pure beauty. Haku felt the urge to sing along but watching the pair of them on stage she found her breath coming too quickly for words.

Where Luka was smooth and graceful on stage Miku's performance could best be described as energetic and cute. Her natural bubbliness came through as she danced and sang in perfect harmony with the pink haired idol, her side twintails spinning around her as she twirled and ducked and weaved. Just like the other idol Miku's movements were flawless, and she too never missed a beat, never failed a step or faltered in the slightest. Just as beautiful as the other idol she very clearly had felt forced into retirement far too early; the stage and the spotlight suited her perfectly in every way. She seemed made for the limelight, sculpted and modeled for it. Haku felt a sudden sadness that she had never known of Miku before meeting her, that she hadn't found her videos online when she was shut away as she had with Luka. She'd looked them up since of course, spent time in her room watching them and had even noticed an odd discrepancy with the dates on them she still intended to bring up at some point, Miku was fantastic and she didn't like the sudden sense of loss she felt. Lots of people knew of the ex-idol Hatsune Miku, she had a following just like Luka. Her work must be everywhere.

The song came to a close and the two struck their final poses smiling brightly, and the crowd went wild. Everyone surged to their feet and began chanting, "More more more! More more more! More more more!" Miku let out a giggle which echoed clearly through the room even over the chanting and Luka swung her arm in a huge arch over their heads. "You want more do you?!" They roared at her as they had before, and Miku stepped up with her.

"You all want to see a final act?!" The pretty blue haired girl asked needlessly.

The crowd roared again, and Luka's smile turned devious once more. Haku suddenly felt her insides freeze in anxious anticipation. The pieces all fell into place suddenly in her mind. Luka making them get dressed and then having their makeup done. Her insistence they go with her to her dressing room. Her talk of their special VIP seats in the store. She had been planning this all along, and not just for Miku. Her hands reflexively tried to grip the arms of her chair but she had stood with the crowd and her fingers clutched convulsively at empty air. Luka pointed right at her and Haku's vision turned white as a spotlight hit her. "Then it's with great pleasure now that I introduce to you someone else very dear to me, for the first time ever taking the spotlight on the idol stage, Yowane Haku!"

Haku shook her head in sheer terror at Luka and Miku. They couldn't make her do this, she wasn't an idol! There was no way she could get up in front of an entire crowd like they did! She would melt into the floor! She'd explode from embarrassment! There was no way! How could they make her do this?! Didn't they love her?! But they both just smiled wider and nodded at her, then they both reached down to grab for her arms from the edge of the stage. She tried to pull back reflexively but they caught her and hauled her onto the stage. Haku's panic took over and she tried to bolt for the edge but they still had hold of her and spun her around to face the crowd… and Haku froze. Mostly all she could see was the light in her eyes, mostly all she could hear was the thundering of her own heart in her ears. But beyond that… there was the crowd, and they were… cheering? For her? She realized Luka was talking.

"She's a bit shy because she's a brand new idol everyone!" Luka called out gleefully. "Never seen before on stage! What a treat for you all!"

They _were_ cheering for her. Haku's pulse slowed by a sliver and she started breathing again, though she didn't remember holding it. Miku reached to her ear to mute her headset for a moment and she whispered into Haku's ear. "Remember, Haku-chin. Stage presence." She smiled brilliantly and turned her mic back on as she moved her head away to let a stagehand bring an earpiece up to Haku. She had to have Luka help clip it to her ear having never messed with one before, but once it was on she took a deep breath. Stage presence. Outer serenity. Calm. Mysterious. She saw Luka and Miku's smiles broaden as she very visibly wrapped herself in her exterior exotic coolness and swept her red eyes across the room. Her insides still felt like ice but none of it showed now, and they gestured for her to say something, so she addressed the people in the theatre room. "Hello, everyone." Her voice didn't even waver, she was proud of that, her tone silvery and serene. "Are you all having a good time?" It seemed a silly thing to ask, but she couldn't think of anything better. They roared anyway, and she even heard some of them chanting her name.

"How about something easy for her first time, folks?" Luka smiled and pushed Haku to the center stage. Wait she wasn't going to lead? Haku had never led a dance before, this was going to be a disaster! No, not a disaster. Calm. Serene. Luka tapped her nose again as though thinking hard. "I've got it! I just know Haku-chin knows this one!" She raised her hands to signal again, a four and three on her hands, and the other two girls stepped back and to the sides of her, Luka to her right and Miku to her left. Haku thought she was going to scream, she didn't know the routine! What was she supposed to do?! But then the first notes sounded of Gokuraku Johdo and she blinked. She DID know this one, it was another of her favorites. How had Luka known? That didn't matter. As one the three of them turned to their sides and lifted their arms parallel to the ground as the initial symbol crashes sounded, then when the melody started they raised one arm up in an arch over their heads. This was no different than her dancing lessons, Haku thought to herself. No different. Months now spent with Hibiki-sensei in the dance studio began to flood into her mind. Move, turn, reset. That was martial arts, but it was dancing too first and foremost, and so was this. She could barely see the people watching anyway, and just like the Odoru no Budo this could flow from a Vocaloid's natural instinct and emotion. She knew the steps, she had watched Luka do this in her videos any number of times. As her arm started descending on her other side and the three of them turned to face forward they rolled their wrists together, once, twice, thrice, four times. Then they turned to the side once more for the turns, quarter, quarter, half, face forward. Then the beat picked up and they began to dance. The beat was deep and loud, their movements in perfect sync, though in truth the other two were following Haku's tempo. She wasn't off though, she could feel it, but they were matching themselves to her. She could feel that too. Their energy was reaching out to her, and she accepted it, used it, and fed it back to them with her own. Their bodies vibrated on the same wavelengths completely in tune, but no one in the crowd could have known that.

When the song drew to a close the crowd was on their feet again and the applause was deafening, but Haku actually found herself smiling in spite of her nerves still running rampant. The rush of the performance, the energy from the crowd, it was a feeling bordering on euphoria. She couldn't help it, she turned to beam a smile at the other two girls who each gave her one in return. They couldn't do more than that, they were on stage, but she could tell they were immensely pleased with and proud of her, but Luka wasn't done yet. She raised her hands in signal once more, a two and a four. Luka moved up to where Haku was standing and with all three of their bodies still in perfect harmonious vibration she could practically feel the other girl's intent. She stepped back to take the pink haired beauty's previous place so Luka could lead once more, flashing another smile at Miku and getting one in return. Then the music began, and Luka let out the first long stretched out notes of Number 9. "Huuuuuuuuuu Uuuuuuuuuuuu UUUUUUUUUUU uuuuuuuuuuuuu"

Haku had seen this dance a couple of times also, and though she didn't know it as well as the last one she did know it well enough for her instincts to guide her, especially with their bodies vibrating together. She almost thought she could feel everything going on through the other two girls' senses, almost felt like they were all truly one. She stepped off in time with the other two, shimmy step sideways, one hand to the side of her head, then shimmy step back, switching hands. Then again. It was a measured song with a moderate pace but it had a lot of energy and it seemed to surge with the power within them that they were feeding off of from one another. Their sonic energies seemed to come alive as they danced, the music flowing through them and around them, their power reverberating through each other. Their sonics grew closer and closer and Haku continued to take it all into herself from them and feed it back as she moved to the song, then suddenly it felt like they were one voice, one power, perfectly in harmony. The energies soared through her higher than she had ever dreamed possible, and suddenly, instinctively she knew what had happened. They were Resonating. All three of them, Multi Resonance. She had thought what she was feeling before was close to euphoric, but this put that to shame. She danced, they danced, it was the same. She had an innate sense of the other two as they moved which came faster than conscious thought and they could have each said exactly what the other was doing even if they were blindfolded.

The last notes of the song finally drew to a close, and Luka waved at the crowd. "You were all wonderful, be well and good night!" Then the sparkly black curtains fell on them. The applause was thunderous, chanting and stomping from so many people vibrating the very floor of the stage. They made their pleasantries to the stage hands then went back to Luka's dressing room. As soon as the door was closed Haku threw her arms around the pink haired beauty and pressed her lips to hers, not caring of their lipstick smeared. Luka caught her eagerly and they embraced for a long few moments before Haku pulled back and turned in time to catch Miku who practically dove into her and gave her the same treatment she had just given to Luka. They traded a flurry of kisses for long moments before Haku felt the need to say something.

"I was so nervous, so terrified of being up there, but once I did it it was… it was amazing… The crowd, the energy, the lights… and I feel like I'm going to burst with the energy from you both."

Miku reached up to brush at a few stray snowy strands of Haku's hair affectionately. "Welcome to the limelight, Haku-chin, and congratulations on your first Resonance. That was really something else, I've never felt so much sonic energy before."

Luka nodded her agreement. "It was like being charged with live electrical current, just an intense amount of voltage."

"It was beyond euphoric, all that energy at once, the music, the atmosphere, the voltage…" She squirmed a little bit and began kissing them both again. They giggled between kisses, and it was a long time before they emerged again from the dressing room...


	17. Vocaloid Academy Chapter 17

The shipping docks in the commercial district all looked the same to Haku, especially covered in a thin layer of snow as everything was today; giant metal cargo containers stacked every which way, various supply crates loaded with equipment or filled with tools or the like, ropes and chains and tie downs coiled where they could be at hand when needed, all the things one might expect from a port of call. Except that this port was mostly empty at the moment and there weren't very many people nearby. There were a few some distance off, but none within easy earshot. It was lunch time which explained the eerie deserted feel which to the usually bustling docks which wasn't helped by the layer if white, and despite the sun blazing in a nearly cloudless sky overhead the air was chilly enough that she had her black and purple parka zipped all the way up. The wind kicked up and howled through the docks and she flexed her fingers as she felt the wind's cold bite at her digits even through her velvety gloves, her purple lacy bow holding her cascading white hair back in a loose tail bobbed as it was buffeted by the gusts. The snow had started falling the night before and had already melted in a wide area around downtown but on the outskirts of the city everything was still thinly covered with edges of objects poking out. She began to traverse the docks slowly taking her time about looking between the shipping crates or even inside them if they stood open.

"Don't dally Yowane-san, keep moving."

'She's doing fine, she's being thorough."

"So long as she keeps moving while being so studious or the quarry will get away."

"We've got the exits to the docks locked down at either end, nothing is getting by us."

"Be sure that is the case, we don't want any accidents."

Haku listened to the voices buzzing in her earpiece with only half an ear as she continued moving. The chatter on the line continued as she moved along, her red eyes scanning everything as she went. It was impossible to tell if the thing would be hiding or not so she stopped to check behind crates and boxes as well. She had already covered roughly half the length of this section but she knew she was getting close, she could feel it. Every instinct inside her was screaming at her, every ebb and flow of her sonic energies making every fiber of her body vibrate so minutely it was like a full body buzz. She sometimes thought people should be able to see it but it was imperceptible to others. Her eyesight seemed sharper, her hearing more keen, but ultimately it was the smell that warned her.

The scent of tar and dock pitch assaulted Haku's nose even as she felt a strong impulse to turn and she whirled around in a swish of snowy hair already raising her hands up before her. She bent one knee and leaned forward slightly in a forward dance step even as she saw the swirling all black eyes and the pasty complexion of the souldrinker she had been hunting for the past hour coming around the corner of a shipping container at her. The creature snarled at her as she posed clearly annoyed that his prey had noticed him trying to sneak up on her, turning at just the wrong instant or so it would have seemed to him. Haku's eyes widened in shock and she hesitated.

"... Takaki-san?" This man was someone she knew, a guy that had been in one of her classes at university. She'd sat by him, had shared her notes with him once.

"Yowane-san?"

"Haku-chin?!"

"Haku-chin!"

The urgent voices buzzing in her earpiece weren't getting through to her as she stared in horror at the face she knew. "Takaki-san, it's me! Yowane Haku!" The souldrinker growled at her and suddenly came rushing forward. She shrieked and threw herself to the side as he tried to grab for her, all of her training fleeing her mind as she panicked. She had survived an attack by a souldrinker before by mere seconds purely by a chance encounter with the Vocaloid who had saved her and she had no desire to relive a second, but Takaki-san was quick. He flung aside a crate that was slightly in his way as he turned around to come back for her. A shower of metal tools went scattering and Haku shrieked again at the clatter they made and started backing away. "Takaki-san listen to me!" Her back pumped up against a shipping crate and she realized she was pressing against the door. He snarled and lunged for her again and she shrieked once more as she dove through the door, his fist and head contacting the metal of the hatch as she dove inside.

"Haku-chin! Answer me! Where are you?! HAKU-CHIN!"

"She's inside that shipping crate, I just saw her go in!"

"Intercept! Yowane-san, remain where you are!"

Haku fled into the shipping container and glanced over her shoulder as she turned to the side beside some crates, and felt the toe of her shoe catch and she toppled forward in front of them. With a squeak she rolled over and started to sit up and the souldrinker was right there. Those deep swirling black orbs opened wide and it's mouth contorted as it tried to start sucking out her lifeforce, and out of the corner of her eye she caught a blurring motion of pink and blue at the hatch, but then her mind came back to her, her training reasserted itself, and in that moment time seemed to slow. She could have counted each individual strand of pink and blue hair that seemed not quite frozen in mid swish at the hatch, could have plucked every bit of fuzz off the souldrinker's shirt as it moved infinitesimally slowly toward her. Time was hers. She reached a hand up and rotated her shoulder and her sonic energies surged throughout her body. A high pitched note burst from her so high it made even her own ears ring. "HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" The souldrinker's head burst like a melon hit with a sledgehammer even as time rushed forward once more and it's body was blasted back so hard it left a massive dent in the side of the shipping container's steel wall with a thunderous clang. There was a spray of blood and grey matter that coated the inside of the container where the dent in the wall was and she turned away and began to wretch up her breakfast at the sight.

Suddenly Haku felt arms circling around her and she turned and flung herself into Luka and Miku's embrace, and she couldn't stop the sobs even as words began to pour from her. "I- I kn-knew him! H-His n-name was T-Takaki Gen! H-He w-was in one of my m-m-math classes! H-He sat b-b-by me and b-borrowed my n-n-notes! H-He was s-studying to be a m-m-marine b-biologist! H-He took dock w-work as part of his r-r-resume building p-program and-! And-!"

Miku clutched her hard around the shoulders and made gentle shushing noises and Luka stroked her snow white hair on her head. "No, Haku-chin." The pink haired beauty said her crystal voice carrying a kind tone. "No, you didn't know him. He was a souldrinker. There's no coming back from that."

"That's right." Miku said soothingly, one hand starting to rub at Haku's back. "When they turn into a souldrinker they lose everything they were. They look like a human, they walk like a human, they talk like a human, maybe they even think they are, but they aren't. They basically become demons or zombies or something."

"That thing looked like this Takaki-san, but it wasn't him anymore." Luka brushed at some of Haku's tears and kept stroking her hair. They both held her until her sobbing stopped but they didn't have long to consider much else.

"Cleanup team inbound, report please."

The third voice that had been in her earpiece was a deep bass rumble and Miku turned her head slightly to answer into her own mic. "Send extra baggies and cleanser, daddy. It's… gorey in here."

There was a slight hesitation on the other end of the line before Director Hatsune responded with a curt, "Understood. Return to base please."

"Understood." Luka said and switched off her earpiece before removing it and slipping it into a pocket of her bright pink windbreaker. Miku did the same and after a moment Haku followed suit before standing with the other two girls. They exited the shipping crate without looking back and once outside Haku produced a grey silk handkerchief from one pocket she used to dab at her face as they made their way down the dock away from the grisly scene.

"That was some mess you made, Haku-chin." Miku said in a slightly teasing sort of way, but she moved to Haku's left side and took her hand in her right to take any sting from it.

"You need to develop more control." Luka added, but she took Haku's right hand with her left as soon as the handkerchief was put away and the two seemed as though they were leading her along. "It's not your fault you had your power forcefully woken up, no one blames you, but you need to work at control more. That trick you did with the car in traffic the week before last seems to be about the limit of your finesse, which isn't that finely tuned."

"I've been training every day…" Haku muttered dejectedly.

"It's not your fault." Miku echoed the sentiment and squeezed at Haku's hand before adding, "Training and practical application are two different things, Haku-chin. You'll get it, you just have to keep trying."

"But how can I work at it without actually doing it?" Haku tried very hard not to sound like she was whining but wasn't at all certain she managed it. "I've gone out on several of these with you both and nothing seems to be coming of it. This wasn't my first mess…" That last came out as a mumble.

"It will come in time. If we could think of a way to give you practical experience without actually facing them we would."

Luka's face lit up suddenly and she looked at the other two excitedly. "I think I have an idea for that!" Sliding her free hand into her pocket she withdrew her phone and opened a web browser.

"What kind of idea?!" Miku demanded in a playful tone and Haku craned her neck to try to see what the idol was doing but Luka smirked at them and danced a little sideways to keep the phone screen out of their field of view, though she didn't let go of Haku's hand. Was that… a sporting goods store website she glimpsed?

"You'll see." Luka said in a teasing singsong voice. "It just has to be something moving to attack right?" She taped a phone number on the site and as the phone began to dial she held it up to her ear.

Right that moment the Vocaloid cleanup crew came through. They were walking straight toward the three girls and Luka dropped Haku's hand to move one way while Miku pulled her the other so they could get through. Three men and two women marching by who gave them nods. They were all dressed in what looked like forensics gear and carrying black cases and one of the men looked to Miku. "How bad is it Hatsune-san?"

Miku winced and shook her head. "You've got your work cut out for you this time, Migita-san." Haku blushed faintly in embarrassment and averted her eyes.

The man winced back at her. "Oy. Well we'll the care of it, we always do." He aimed a wink at Haku. "However bad it is it can't be as bad as what Megurine-san did two years ago in that warehouse."

Miku shook her head and rolled her eyes. "You're never going to let us live that down are you?"

He smirked. "Never."

Miku waved him off. "You'd better get to it then, but I'd hold of on the final verdict on that one until you see it." He gave a nod and the group hurried on.

Once they were gone Luka slid back up beside Haku and took her hand once more. Her phone was back in her pocket and Haku realized the pink haired beauty had used the diversion to sneak her phone call in without being overheard. By that look on the pretty light blue haired girl's face Miku realized it too.

"Very sneaky." Haku said in a tone both teasing and accusatory in her silvery voice.

"No fair!" Miku all but pouted at the same time.

Luka gave a soft mysterious sort of laugh. "You'll see soon enough." She promised.

Miku continued to pester Luka the entire way off the docks and back out to the road where they had parked the Ferrari but Haku was content just to take comfort in holding their hands as she focused on breathing evenly. She was still shaken up by what had happened and she couldn't lose the feeling that she had killed someone she knew no matter what they said. It had been different the last few times she had been out with them keeping an eye on her; those times it had been easy to not really look too closely at the stranger's faces and pretend she was just exterminating monsters or something. But this monster had worn the mask of someone she had known.

When they reached the Ferrari they all paused and the other two turned to look at Haku and she realized it was her turn to drive. Ordinarily she would have been all for it since they had taught her how and she had found a real enjoyment in it, but right that moment she just wanted to feel them beside her. "I… can we skip my turn this time? I'd rather…" she trailed off but they seemed to understand and Miku moved around to the driver side. They still took turns at absolutely everything and even after they had all jammed themselves into the four eighty-eight and Haku was uncomfortably squished into the middle by the shifter she was still happy to take Luka's hand back in hers. Luka didn't even complain about the Ferrari being so cramped without a back seat this time as she so often did, and she gave her right hand to Haku from her far side and slid her left arm around Haku's shoulders to squeeze her close. Miku needed both hands to drive so Haku contented herself with resting her left hand on the light blue twintailed girl's knee.

They rode in silence for a time as Miku drove them back to the Vocaloid Compound and Haku slowly began to relax against Luka in her arms. She could tell they didn't want to break the silence but every now and then Miku would reach down and squeeze the hand Haku had on her knee and Luka seemed perfectly content to hold the snowy white haired girl against herself. Finally after long minutes had seemed to drag past she spoke up. "Can I ask you both a personal question?"

"Of course you can." Luka replied immediately.

"You really need to ask permission? It's us, Haku-chin." Miku said right atop her.

Even so it took Haku a few moments more before she could muster the nerve. "You've both… been in the situation I was just in before…? Right? With… someone you knew? How did you handle it?" That made their expressions darken somewhat and she hastened to add, "If you can't say it's okay, I would understand."

Luka sighed. "I've already told you about my… incident.' She said and Haku could feel her arm tightening around her shoulders. "To be honest the guy I was with at the time wasn't what bothered me, it was… "

The pink haired beauty trailed off and Haku filled it in for her. "Your parents."

Luka nodded and swallowed a lump rising in her throat. "In actuality I don't know if the guy was already a souldrinker when I met him or if he became one later, but either way it hurt to have to do it. Between that and my parents… Well. I don't know that I could have dealt with it at all if it hadn't been for Miku-chin being there for me." She aimed a smile over Haku's head at the light blue haired girl.

"You could have, you're the strongest person I've ever met Luka-chin." Miku replied but she smiled back.

"What about you Miku-chin?" Haku asked.

Miku didn't answer right away as she guided the car along but after a time she did finally speak if in a hushed voice. "It was another Vocaloid…" she all but whispered.

Haku felt Luka's body stiffen beside her, after a moment she asked tentatively, "Yamada-san?"

Miku gave a curt nod but didn't say anything else. Haku opened her mouth after a moment to ask for more but Luka squeezed her hand in a gentle warning and she closed it again. Miku must have picked up on something of the exchange however because she sighed and shook her head. "It doesn't matter."

"It does matter." Luka whispered gently, reaching the arm around Haku out to brush at Miku's shoulder with her fingertips. "You and he-"

"We nothing." Miku cut her off roughly, but it was an internal emotional pain, she wasn't mad at Luka and she didn't flinch away from the gentle touch. "It was a stupid little girl's crush on my part, we never had anything to do with each other. And that doesn't matter anyway because like I said earlier, when someone turns into a souldrinker they lose everything else. I didn't kill him, I killed the souldrinker that killed him!" She sounded as much like she was trying to convince herself as them despite how confident she'd sounded of the sentiment when she'd said it to Haku a few minutes before.

Haku didn't know what to think of all that so she just squeezed Miku's knee with the hand still on her leg. "I'm sorry I brought it up, I didn't want to upset you." She whispered, her silvery voice thick with regret for hurting Miku. She hadn't meant to.

Miku sat stiffly for a time just driving the car, her knuckles white on the wheel from her grip on it, her usual bubbly silk exterior non existent as her steel will showed through. After a long time though she finally sighed once more and dropped one of her hands from the wheel to squeeze Haku's hand tightly for a few moments. "It's okay, Haku-chin. You weren't trying to upset me, I know you're just looking for answers. To tell the truth, we all are. Vocaloids are still such a new concept we're all just doing the best we can."

"That's the truth." Luka said with a smile for both of them. "We can only take it one day at a time, and lean on each other for support."

"That's why I'm glad I have you two. I can't imagine how I would handle my life being changed so dramatically these past weeks without you both." Haku kept her voice low still but they both flashed her small appreciative smiles and Luka squeezed her around the shoulders once more. She smelled so good, like rose soap and the expensive floral shampoo she used in her flowing pink hair.

"You're sweet to say so, Haku-chin, but you do just as much for us I promise you that." Miku told her.

"That's right, you've brought a degree of stability to our lives." Luka added.

Haku blushed faintly. "I'm sure it's not as grand as all that." They eyed her with those looks they got when they thought she was being too hard on herself and her flush deepened. Abruptly she turned around in Luka's arms to press her face against the idol's shoulder and into her hair. Luka seemed surprised but wrapped her arms around her anyway and she breathed deeply. "You smell so good." She murmured. Luka just giggled.

"Where's my snuggle?!" Miku pouted.

"You're driving." Haku replied without looking up and Miku whined.

Once they got back to the Compound as they came around the corner there was some large delivery truck pulled up out by the front gates. Director Hatsune was out there with a man in white and green with a sports store logo on his shirt that matched the brand painted on the side of the truck. After they had parked the car in the garage, and Miku had pressed Haku against it after they'd gotten out to get her snuggle, the three of them walked out and around to find him eying them suspiciously. He waved a clipboard with an invoice at them as they approached. "Is this your doing Megurine-san? It has your name on it."

"It's a training expense." Luka answered.

Director Hatsune narrowed his eyes. "How?"

She gestured at Haku. "We needed a way to develop control for Haku-chin without practical experience. Trust me, this will work."

The director eyed Haku up and down a moment before giving a small nod. "I think I see. I will authorize it this time, but in the future please call beforehand.." Luka nodded as he signed and the truck worker began unloading, a giant box and several dull grey bags visible in the back. Director Hatsune herded the girls a few steps away before speaking in a low voice so they couldn't be overheard, his deep bass voice sounding like a boulder rolling down hill. "Before you try this however I want to get all three of you in the testing chamber for measurements. We could use an idea of how far Yowane-san's abilities have spiked, and you two haven't been in for some time." Miku groaned and Luka narrowed her eyes but they nodded without protest and he went on. "With our numbers what they are we need to be making every effort to keep ourselves ready and in top shape. Your mother is waiting at the chamber, I'll see to this." He added to Miku. "I'll have it set up in studio four."

"Yes Director Hatsune." Luka said.

"Yes daddy." Miku echoed right atop Luka.

Haku just nodded as he was moving away then turned to follow the other two girls through the front gates then down the halls to the medical wing. As they walked Haku glanced around to her left. "Miku-chin, I was curious about something. I wanted to bring it up before but it didn't seem a good time before, but now that you're an idol again I was wondering."

"Hm?" The twintailed girl replied looking around at her.

"What happened with your retirement before?"

There was another pause, this silence as touchy as the last one. It seemed the afternoon for awkward questions, but Miku sighed. "Well I suppose there's no harm in telling you, since I guess it wasn't as big of a deal as I thought." She gestured vaguely as if to indicate the rest of the world. "I was booked for a show at a venue called Ijinashi. They're a super high class place with both a large outdoor stage as well as an indoor auditorium. The manager I had at the time was… well I've complained about him before. He wasn't very good, never really listened to anyone, least of all me, and just set things up however he wanted. Well, he booked me for the outdoor stage, except that it was still kinda bad weather season and there was a severe storm warning for that very day even. I asked him to do the indoor stage instead, and even the owners of Ijinashi said it might not be a good idea, but he was dead set on the outdoor stage."

"Idiot…" Luka all but growled as they rounded a corner into the medical wing, and Haku blinked at her before Miku went on.

"Well, a storm started just before the show was supposed to begin. The rain wasn't all that bad but it was like super windy, like I thought it might blow me over a couple of times. I said I didn't want to do it, but he said if I didn't he'd fire me. Sooooo… what could I do? I went on stage, and I got hurt."

"Is this the one where the stage collapsed?"

Miku blinked her green eyes at Haku and nodded. "That's right, the wind was so strong it caught the canopy and pulled the whole thing down. How did you know?"

"I saw it online." Haku pulled her new Android out and woke up the screen. "Let me ask you another question. When did this happen? You were injured and retired because of it. When was this?"

"During some stormy weather in April, about seven months ago now." She answered with a questioning look on her face. "Why?"

Haku tapped the YouTube app on her screen to open up a video window. "Are you absolutely certain about that?"

The twintailed girl nodded. "Completely, I never forgot a show."

She tapped her recent searches and brought up the video. "You're positive?"

"Haku-chin, what's this about?" Luka asked gently.

Haku stopped in the hallway and held up her phone so they could both see the screen. It was a video taken by an onlooker in the crowd. Miku's younger self was visible on stage dancing while casting nervous glances at a billowing canopy over head that began rocking dangerously. The camera angle was too far out to see individual details but it was still completely clear when a massive gust of wind pulled the canopy free and the entire set came down apparently on top of Miku and the stagehands in the back. The light blue haired girl winced as she watched and nodded.

"That's what happened. Two stagehands died from injuries, four others including myself were hurt seriously and rushed to the hospital. I had a severe concussion and was bedridden for nearly a month, and my retirement was announced shortly after."

Haku pointed at the date on the video. "Look when the video was uploaded, the timestamp on the YouTube channel."

Both of the other two girls leaned their heads in and both of their eyes widened. "Two years ago...?" Luka asked incredulously.

"What?" Miku looked completely baffled. "How can this have been posted before it actually happened?"

"It's the same with all the videos of you I can find online, Miku-chin." Haku tapped a couple of related videos one after the next. "The most recent uploads are about that long ago. Even Hojoto-san said the other day your retirement 'the year before' came too early."

They all looked up with completely confused looks at each other and then Miku glanced down again. "Well… I don't know. I don't understand how this can be. I could swear to you I'm not remembering wrong, but… well I mean unless there's some time traveling going on…"

They all stared at each other in silence for a very long drawn out few minutes before Luka gestured with a nod down the corridor. "Come on, Doctor Hatsune is waiting." They started walking again and the pink haired beauty moved around to Miku's other side and both she and Haku took up her hands. "Don't worry Miku-chin, we'll figure this out once we have some time to look into it. Let's just get through our tests and have dinner later and we'll see what we can find out, hm?" Miku brightened at the idea of food as she always did and nodded as they rounded the last corner.

Once they reached the office directly adjacent to the testing chamber they did indeed find Doctor Hatsune apparently finishing up with the preparations. The more than handsome woman with her blue hair pulled back in a simple ponytail that was mostly hidden by her white lab coat gave the trio a smile as they came in. "Hello girls."

"Hi mom." Miku said brightly, all traces of the earlier awkwardness gone for the moment as her natural bubbliness resurface.

"Hi Doctor Hatsune." Luka add, tilting her head curiously, her pink hair shifting behind her back. "Has there been any progress made in questioning Juon-san?"

The doctor blinked then shook her head dubiously. "No, nothing yet. She simply won't break, won't even speak, just stares at anyone who talks to her with a blank expression. We haven't gotten anywhere with traditional questioning."

"Does that mean less… traditional methods… are going to be used?" Haku wanted to know. Of all of them she had the most reason to want answers but she still didn't want to see anyone hurt.

Doctor Hatsune shook her head though. "I shouldn't even be talking about this, it's still a delicate matter." They narrowed their eyes at her; they were the top Vocaloids after all, they had a right to know if anyone did, and Mira sighed. "No decision has been reached as yet. Don't worry about it right now, we'll tell you if anything changes. In the meantime," She gestured at the testing chamber. "Who wants to go first?"

"I will." Luka replied without hesitation, always the one to step forward first.

Doctor Hatsune nodded. "Okay Megurine-san. You know what to do."

Luka gave a nod and removed her windbreaker to fold it over the back of a chair then straightened the smooth shimmery long sleeved cream colored satiny shirt she was wearing beneath it and flashed a smile at the other two girls before stepping through the door opposite the one they had come in and closing it behind herself. Doctor Hatsune hit a few buttons on the touchpad keyboard etched into the control bank and several monitors lit up to show Luka from various angles inside the spherical testing chamber. She pressed a mic feed button and spoke into a microphone anchored beside the keyboard. "Alright, we're ready when you are. Don't hold back."

Luka closed her eyes and a moment later music began to play through the speakers from the video feeds on her. Every fiber of a Vocaloid's very body was an instrument of sonic energy, a conduit ready to direct and unleash the vibrations they could channel through themselves and utilizing whatever mystical or energy force that flowed through them and powered their abilities they could produce any number of surprising effects, such as music without any need for external sound devices. It only took the first few notes for Haku to recognize Addiction and a few moments in Haku and Miku were nodding along to the beat as Luka began to dance on the monitors. It was hard not to start dancing herself right then, Haku could feel the beat working it's way into her, could feel her idol's energy even through the wall between them. She had to resist the urge to reach out with her own energies to connect with the pink haired beauty; forming a Resonance would have skewed the test results.

Within moments to their eyes flashes of white light tinged faintly pink and the echoes of sonic booms began to emanate from Luka as she sang and danced, every last sonic energy wave emitting forth from one of Luka's limbs as she ducked and weaved, twirled and spun to her own music. As smooth and graceful as ever Haku found herself mesmerized by the way Luka moved as she always did when watching the pink haired beauty. The moves she was doing weren't the same as the actual dance steps called for by the song of course; she wasn't just dancing, she was doing the Vocaloid's Martial Arts of Dance so she could aim her sonic blows at the wall. Hands, wrists, elbows, hips, knees, feet and even her head and shoulders directed sonics all at the specially designed walls of the spherical acoustic testing chamber, padded with special mesh and woven with vibration sensors specifically designed and calibrated to measure the force of those sonic waves emitting from Luka at many dozens of times normal human perception ranges, but they could see it.

Miku whistled appreciatively at the light show and nudged Haku with an elbow to point at one of the monitors covered in readouts of various number displays that all fluctuated periodically from the samplings the sensors were taking. Haku blinked her red eyes at the other girl then looked to the monitor. In the bottom right corner was a number bigger than the rest labeled "Peak Output" that read "141x" indicating how far above average human perception ranges Luka's sonic energies were reaching. Haku blinked again and looked back to Miku. "I thought she was higher than that."

"Her potential is higher, but she hasn't reached it yet." Miku answered and peered at Haku. "I thought you had that figured out already."

"I did, but I thought she was closer to it than that."

Miku shook her head a bit and waved a vague sort of gesture at the monitors. "A vocaloid's powers usually develop slowly over a long period of time. She's spiked recently though, which happens from time to time. A few weeks before you came to us we did a test run each and she peaked at one thirty seven and I hit one thirty eight." Miku giggled.

"You peaked higher than she did?" Haku asked curiously.

Miku nodded. "Until we reach our potentials we may fluctuate back and forth between who grows faster and who reaches what numbers. I was stronger last month." She eyed the monitors for a moment, her green eyes glinting with a competitive light. "We'll see today. We've been training a lot." Miku turned her green eyed stare on Haku. "We all have. And your powers were forced awake. I wonder what yours will say."

"What did it say last time?" She wondered out loud thinking back on her first test months before when she had barely been capable of the softest gust of energy.

Miku tried hard to keep a smile from twisting her lips but couldn't quite manage it. "Three." She laughed and reached out to squeeze one of Haku's hands. "It's okay, you're the first one to ever even register at all on their first test, so that's still incredible." She paused and tilted her head, her light blue twintails off the sides of her head shifting about behind her as she did. "Still, I wonder what it will say now."

When the door to the chamber opened and Luka came out her eyes flickered to the display and she smiled at Miku with a competitive look glinting in her blue eyes. "Beat that if you can!" She giggled.

"I bet I will!" Miku shot back smiling as well.

"No way! I bet I'll be above you" Luka returned. It seemed their mirror competition ran deep on this, Haku thought to herself.

"Oh yeah? What do you bet?" Miku asked. Her mother rolled her eyes but kept her face forward in her seat and Haku doubted the other two noticed.

"What do you want?" Luka's expression turned from playful to suspicious.

"That purple moonstone ring!" Miku pointed at the other idol dramatically.

Luka narrowed her eyes and turned her head slightly without breaking eye contact. "Only if you bet those firedrop earrings of yours."

Miku flinched but her back straightened with a determined look. "Done!" Then she pulled off her own windbreaker to toss on the chair on top of Luka's, straightened her cute dark blue short sleeved blazer, and stalked into the testing chamber then pulled the door closed behind herself even as she appeared on the monitors. Luka turned to catch up Haku's hand in hers and offered a smile. Haku rolled her eyes in a mock suffering sort of gesture but she squeezed the other girl's hand.

"Okay Miku, whenever you're ready." Doctor Hatsune told her daughter through the mic, and Miku began to dance as had Luka. Pink Cat seemed to fit her mood as well as her personality at the moment so it wasn't much of a surprise, and Haku found herself just as mesmerized by the pretty light blue haired girl as she had been by Luka. Miku's movements were energetic and precise, cute and bouncy, and her moves as well weren't the regular dance but that of the Odoru no Buda. The flashes of white light she put out were tinted slightly blue and she seemed like she was trying to blast a hole into the sonic proofed chamber wall as she spun and twisted and ducked and weaved, firing sonic waves with her hands and feet and knees and elbows. Haku watched her body move, drinking in the sight of her.

"She really loves those earrings." Luka said after a moment. "I'm surprised she agreed. I hope she wins."

Haku looked up in surprise. "You want to lose?"

Luka shook her head. "No of course not, my pride is just as intense as hers. But I don't want her to lose either."

Haku thought about that for a moment, about loving someone so much you wanted them to benefit above yourself. It was a sentiment she hoped they shared about her too. She knew she felt that way about them, frequently inconveniencing herself just to see them smile at her the way Luka was smiling at her now making her feel as if her insides were melting. She thought she would do close to anything for those smiles.

They nodded in time to the beat of Miku's song and watched her dance while keeping on eye on the monitor's readout. The amount of power she was putting out was climbing steadily, the number shifting higher. 138… 139… 140… when she hit 141x Luka's eyes widened but she was still smiling too. The song went on, the music pulsed, the energy flowed, they could both feel it coming from the other side of the wall, but by the time the song wound down and Miku finally stepped from the chamber the display monitor still said 141x. They both stared at it for a long moment before looking at each other with surprised expressions on their pretty faces.

"A draw?" Miku said, and it was hard to tell whether she was relieved or unhappy about it.

"I guess so." Luka agreed. "How odd."

"Well… technically not." Haku said slowly as a thought occurred to her.

"What do you mean?" Miku asked curiously. "Neither of us won."

"Well…" Haku said tentatively. "Neither of you won, but Miku-chin you bet you would would be higher, and you aren't. Luka-chin, you bet you would be, and you aren't. So… I think by the way your bet was worded…" She trailed off but couldn't stop a small smirk at their expense.

"We both lose." Luka finished for her, looking to MIku with even more surprise and getting a wide green eyed stare in return.

"Does that mean… we trade?" She asked.

Haku shrugged and let out a soft giggle. "Only if you want, I just thought it was funny the way you worded it."

They considered for a moment before giving nods at virtually the same time. "I promised." Luka said, and Miku agreed.

"Your turn, Yowane-san." Doctor Hatsune interjected and Haku turned toward the door but stopped as she felt hands on her arms. She turned to see why they had stopped her and found them both grinning at her.

"You might want to take off your coat, Haku-chin. You don't want to have it restricting your movements." Luka said and Miku giggled.

Haku blinked down at herself then unzipped the parka, shedding it and setting it neatly in the seat of the chair the other two had used. Her black silk blouse with silver rose bud on the side was part of a set Miku had given her but she had worn black pants today instead of it"s matching skirt because of the cold weather. Miku always smiled to see her wearing it as she did now. They each squeezed her hands and she turned back to the testing chamber. The door closing sounded to her like a hatch shutting and she gave a little shiver as she stepped into the center of the spherical room. She couldn't see where the cameras or microphones actually were, in fact she couldn't see anything at all beyond the dull grey of rounded walls. She felt cramped in here as she had during her first test and she closed her eyes and tried to envision a wide open area instead.

"Go ahead when you're ready, Yowane-san." Came Doctor Hatsune's voice from nowhere.

The image that popped into Haku's mind was of an old style town square with a few buildings scattered around to make up an old village. Something one might have seen in a province village in Japanese history with tiled roofs and rice paper lanterns with hand drawn designs painted into them like dragons and pheasants and floral patterns and the like. She wasn't sure why this image had come up in her mind's eye but she went with it, imagining a covered well with little prayer strips tied to it before a large official looking building designed for town meetings. Further on she could see smaller huts for individual houses, most in tile like the main building but a few still thatched; clearly the little town was in the process of upgrading. She imagined it at harvest festival time, early evening with the sun just out of sight beyond the horizon and a startling red orange cast splashing across the sky. The workers were all in from the fields and everyone was singing and dancing and relaxing after harvest. Food was put out on little tables all over and there was a big barrel of sake by the well. Luka and Miku were there absolutely beautiful in old style yukatas that matched their hair with gold work all along them. Haku was to sing to the village tonight, and so she began to dance for the crowd, but more importantly, for Luka and Miku.

All of this flashed through her mind in the space of a heartbeat and the the first few notes of Tougen Renka burst from her vibrating body as her sonic energies began to surge through her. Keeping her eyes closed so she could maintain the vision of dancing for them in such a beautiful time and place she lifted her hands at an angle upward with her palms up as though entreating the withdrawing sun to go in peace and the emerging moon to grace them with it's soft light and elegant presence. Then she began to dance for them. Sonic waves burst through her body and she directed them and her singing in all directions around her as she danced.

… … … … …

Luka was absolutely spellbound with her eyes fixed on the monitors as Haku danced. She couldn't have peeled her eyes away if there had been a fire bedside her. The snowy haired beauty was putting out so much energy she could feel it through the walls, so much emotion she could almost see a scene around Haku, or at least her mind could see it, or imagine it. An old style village scape at twilight, so much beauty, but she could focus only on Haku's dance. Not quite the traditional dance but not far off of it she wove the movements directing her pure white sonic energy waves so fluidly and seamlessly into the regular dance that it was hard to tell where one ended and the other began even for Luka. Where had she learned that song?

"She's so elegant…" Miku breathed beside her, eyes fixed on the monitors as intently as her own, and all Luka could do was nod.

"All I did was focus on putting out power, but she's putting her heart and soul into this. Such flowing grace." Luka's own crystal voice was soft as well. She felt like if she spoke too loudly she would burst this enchanting scene like a pricked bubble, which was silly of course but she couldn't shake the feeling. They both gazed on in rapt fixated stares feeling their emotions surge through their chests with the ebb and flow of the song until it finally drew to a close. It wasn't until the final note faded and Haku finally opened her red eyes too look for the door that Luka was able to turn her gaze to the readouts, and her eyes widened in shock. Beside her she heard Miku let out a squeak of surprise as the testing chamber doors open and they both turned to stare at the snowy haired beauty in disbelief. "One fifty three?!" she exclaimed.

"Haku-chin! You're incredible!" Miku squealed and flung her arms around the serenely exotic red eyed girl. "I can't believe it! And you danced so beautifully! I couldn't tear my eyes off you!"

Luka nodded and hugged them both. "I felt like I was actually there at the festival." Miku nodded her agreement.

Haku looked at them with surprise showing through her outwardly calm facade. She was getting so good at the cooly mysterious visage. "You… you could see that? It was just an image I conjured up in my mind to keep from thinking about how cramped it is in there."

"This officially makes you the first S+ rank Vocaloid, Yowane-san. Congratulations, you've surpassed the chart." Doctor Hatsune smiled.

Rather than be happy at her accomplishment Haku's face actually fell. "Thank you…"

Luka blinked feeling her heart go out to the other girl and reached a hand up to touch her arm. She had a feeling she knew what was bothering her but asked anyway, "What's wrong?"

Haku let out a huge sigh. "I didn't earn this." She said dejectedly. "Juon Kiku forced this power on me, I didn't develop it naturally. It's not my power, and I can't even control it."

Miku's face took on that narrow eyed look she got when she thought Haku was being too hard on herself and Luka knew it was a mirror of her own expression. "Haku-chin, that's nonsense." The pretty blue haired girl said bluntly. "It didn't develop naturally but it IS your power."

"That's right," her mother put in. "Medically speaking, we tested you before and you rated higher potentially than anyone ever had. It is your power, forced awake or not."

"But my potential was one hundred forty seven times normal human perception ranges. This is beyond that." Haku replied unconvinced.

"The scanning device isn't perfect, it can be off a bit." Doctor Hatsune said. "Intact the more powerful a Vocaloid potentially is the greater the margin for error. Megurine-san and my daughter may both still catch you in time."

"And if you're concerned about control, well, I still haven't shown you my surprise yet." Luka said giving Haku a smile and a wink. "You can still earn your power through developing control over it, by mastering it."

Haku brightened at these thoughts. "Gackpo said something similar… Mastery of my art… yes I can still earn it." She blinked at the others and her red eyes widened a bit. "Oh! And you two can still catch up! That's such a relief…"

"Why so?" Miku wanted to know.

The snowy haired beauty shook her head, her white cascading ponytail shaking behind her. "Because I don't want to be the strongest. I'm more comfortable being second or third. I don't want that sort of acclaim. I'd rather stand proud behind one or both of you." Luka and Miku both blinked at that. They were both so competitive that they couldn't believe in actually wanting to be second or third place, but Haku's expression was so innocent and genuine Luka couldn't doubt she meant it.

"Haku-chin…" Luka reached up to brush at some of the other girl's snowy bangs in an affectionate way. "You are perfect just the way you are. Whatever you do, remember that as long as you are following your heart we will support you no matter what it is." She honestly just wanted to see her serenely exotic love happy, but she couldn't bring herself to say that much in front of Doctor Hatsune.

"That's right!" Miku added in her chime like voice. "You're doing fantastic, Haku-chin! You keep it up and we'll do all we can to support you, even if that means passing you!" She made a fist in the air with a determined look on her face.

Haku smiled at them both. "Thank you. It means a lot to me."

"Well." Miku's mother said with a smile for the three girls. "Why don't you three run along? You can work on that training if you want until another souldrinker is detected."

They all nodded and began gathering up their coats and the doctor excused herself to return to her office and waiting reports she said. Luka turned to the other two and tilted her head toward the door, "Come on, the director said studio four." They followed her as she lead the way out of the medical ward, so naturally falling in line behind her that not even Luka herself thought about how they always seemed comfortable with her in the lead. Not that the other two couldn't take charge when they wanted, they certainly did when it was important to them, but on the whole they naturally seemed to line up this way. She lead them through the corridors to studio four not far from the dance instruction room in the same hallway a few doors down. "Behold! Your practical training experiment!" She threw the door open. The studio was set up much the same way as the other dancing room was with padded grey mats lining the floors and little furniture, but at one end of the room now stood what she had ordered from the sports store.

"A tennis ball launcher?" Miku asked curiously walking over to it and nudging one of the giant grey sacks. "Tennis balls? How is playing tennis going to help us? And where are the rackets? There are no rackets." She asked inquisitively. Haku just looked on wrapped in her outward serenity content to wait for an explanation, all her attention focused on the matter at hand and on her idol. Luka felt her insides warming as she looked at her, she pulled off the mysterious aura so well! It sent shivers up her spine sometimes.

"Like this, watch." Luka moved down to the other end of the studio and stood right in front of the launcher. "Turn it on and put a ball in it." Miku threw the switch and the thing spun to life with a loud whirring noise and she reached into one of the huge grey sacks for a ball. She leaned over the machine being careful not to let her hair dangle too close to avoid getting it caught, and dropped a ball in. With a loud THOOMP! the ball jettisoned from the front of the launcher coming straight at Luka. She watched it coming, the brief second or two of it flying through the air at her all the time a Vocaloid truly needed. She popped a hip and flicked her wrist and let out a soft brief melodious note. "Fuuu!" The soft sonic buffet sent the ball careening off and away from her back toward the end of the room where it started, landing back in one of the big grey bags.

Miku squealed and gave a little hop clapping her hands together in delight. "Oh that's a great idea, Luka-chin! Brilliant! I can't believe how simple but effective it is!" Her bubbly energy was so cute Luka felt her insides warming again and she smiled at the other girl who so firmly held her heart. She still felt like some sort of lecher or pervert or something for being so in love with two girls at once, but they had both said they accepted her so she was trying to get over it. "We can set up little goals or target marks all over!" Miku was saying as she bounced about the room pointing at various places. "Here, and here, and here! And OH! We could make a little miniature goal post IT WILL BE SO CUTE! And over there a miniature basketball hoop! Or HEY! What about an electronic dart board only bigger so we can track scores! Make a game out of it! It'd be so fun!" Luka could see Haku smiling at Miku the same way she was and they both just let Miku flutter about the room for a moment, then Luka walked over and stopped her with a hand on her arm. She spun beaming up at Luka.

"Why don't we let Haku-chin try?" She suggested and Miku blinked and nodded eagerly.

"Haku-chin! Go stand over there and I will shoot tennis balls at you!" Miku called gesturing where Luka had been standing and giggled insanely. Haku looked a little bit dubious but her outer calm was firmly in place and she stepped over and waited.

Miku turned back to the bags and began digging out armfuls of tennis balls spilling as many everywhere to roll around on the floor at her feet as she managed to pick up, and Luka closed her eyes briefly and shook her head. "Miku-chin…"

Miku turned to look up, "Eh?"

Luka leaned down beside one of the bags and picked up a huge plastic funnel with the end designed to clip onto the machine. "It has a ball feed."

She attached it and dropped a couple of balls in the top and showed how the little lever worked to feed the balls in, allowing one at a time to pass or letting them all line up for rapid fire. Miku went all wide eyed and her mouth made a big "O" in surprise and Haku giggled at the other end of the room. She scurried over kicking several of the balls she had dropped on her way scattering them everywhere and Luka sighed and shook her head again but she couldn't stop a grin from curving her lips either at the silliness. Miku leaned up to dump all the balls she was holding into the funnel all at once scatting a few more in the process then turned to look down the room at the waiting snowy haired girl. "Ready Haku-chin?!" She called.

"Just try to deflect them gently at first." Luka called to her.

Haku nodded and put on a determined look and Miku threw the switch to let one of the tennis balls drop down into the chamber. With another THOOMP! the ball was flying through the air as it had before, and Haku raised a hand and took a step forward. "Huuuuuuuuuu!" The note was high and the flash of pure white light from her hand burst forward with a tiny sonic boom and suddenly where the tennis ball had been there was a puff of green and white fuzz drifting down in a little cloud to scatter on the floor. All of their eyes went wide and they blinked at the debris that had once been a tennis ball. Miku and Luka looked to Haku who flushed slightly and shrugged. "I thought that was soft…" She murmured.

Miku let out a giggle. "Keep trying, Haku-chin! You'll get it!" She let another ball fly and again Haku raised her arm and the note this time was a little lower but not by much. The green and white fuzz that poofed in the air sprayed away from her like a dust cloud blown sideways. She let out a sigh of disappointment.

Luka's heart went out to the other girl and she walked down the room to her and gave her a hug. Haku leaned into her and she squeezed her shoulders. "Don't worry, you'll get it. We've been doing this for a couple of years, remember? Usually control and power develop evenly at the same time, so this will be harder for you than for most. But keep trying, I promise it will come in time, okay?"

Haku gave a small nod and squeezed Luka around the middle. She didn't want to let go but released her and walked back to stand near Miku who made sure Haku was ready before beginning to launch balls steadily. Haku tried differently pitched notes, different dance steps, varied how high or low she held her arms, she even tried kicking at the balls, but every time the flash of light and the sonic boom accompanied the poof of a green fluff of a destroyed tennis ball. Luka thought at this rate they would have to get more tennis balls went on for some while, none of them were really paying attention to the time, and gradually Luka became aware of… something. A pulling at her mind, an instinct or impulse tugging at the edges of her consciousness. It was an odd sensation and just beneath notice at first until it grew too insistent to overlook. When she noticed it fully she blinked her blue eyes and glanced off randomly trying to identify the feeling. She wasn't sure what it was, had never felt anything like it.

Suddenly a low growl split the air and everyone stopped for a moment and looked at Miku who blushed. "Did we ever eat lunch…?" The pretty blue haired girl asked sheepishly.

Luka slid her phone out of her pocket and checked the time. "Oh, it's dinner time. No we didn't, we went from the dock to our test to here."

"I want to keep practicing though…" Haku said plaintively. "I know I can get this…"

Miku let out a little whine. "Haku-chiiiiiiiiiiiiiiin! I'm huuuuuuuuungry!"

Luka giggled and reached out to squeeze Miku's hand. "You two keep at it, I'll go and bring us something. How's that?"

Miku's eyes brightened and both of the other two girls nodded to her. Luka gave them both smiles then turned to head out of the room. She felt bad for her little deception but she didn't think she'd be gone long finding out whatever this was that was pulling at her. She could feel it, almost like someone just out of sight beckoning her on. She could go get something to bring them to eat after she found out what this was. She let her emotions guide her, let her feelings pull her and her impulses direct her feet, almost as though she were a passenger in her own body for a few minutes as her steps took her down the corridors to a high security section in the northwest most corner of the compound. Only the directors and the highest ranking Vocaloids had access here, and Luka pulled out her ID card with it's security chip and inserted it into a chip reader beside a door. The little reader let out a series of beeps and a light turned from red to green as her access was authenticated and the door slid open with a soft whoosh and she stepped through into a short side corridor as the door closed once more behind her. The corridor would lead to a series of offices the directors used but that wasn't the way her feet wanted to take her. Directly before her on the opposite side of the small hallway from the door she had come in stood an elevator door. Her ID chip gave her access to that as well and the doors slid open to let her in. She let her hand drift to the touch pad of it's own accord, watched her own finger press the third button of the five that were there and she felt the elevator begin to slide downward toward the lower levels of the compound.

She knew where she was going now, if not exactly why, but Luka decided she had to know. She also wasn't completely certain how this summons had happened. It wasn't long however before the doors of the elevator slid open and she began walking down the rows of containment cells. They were rarely ever used, only twice before that Luka could remember since she'd been a Vocaloid, but one was in use now and it was only a moment before she found herself staring through the bars at Juon Kiku. The bars weren't simply iron bars, they were made out of the same specially designed mesh as the spherical sonic testing chamber was, the same as the walls and ceiling of this entire level were. Any sonic energies directed at anything in this cell or any of the others would just be absorbed and dispersed harmlessly. The worst that a prisoner could do down here would be to destroy their bed or wash stand but that wouldn't gain them anything.

With her red flowing hair loose and brushed out and her red-orange eyes half lidded as she sat on her bed Kiku looked more as though she were taking her ease in the comfort of her own room rather than sitting on a cot in a cell captured in her attack on the Vocaloid Compound when Haku had defeated her single handedly. Luka couldn't help but give grudging admiration for the woman's self possession, privately to herself at least. She never would have said it aloud. Kiku considered Luka through her half closed gaze and for a time the two stared silently at each other, her on her bed confined within and Luka with one hand on her hip in a slightly standoffish pose despite how dangerous this woman was. Three times now Luka had fought her and twice she had come away the worse for wear for all that she was one of the most powerful Vocaloids alive. She had only beaten her the other time because Miku had been there to Resonate with and they had surprised Kiku. It galled her to admit it even to herself but she was no match for Kiku alone.

"What do you want?" Luka finally asked breaking the silence.

The very corners of Kiku's full red lips curved in the faintest of smiles almost a though to a private joke. Her low dark voice seemed to ring when she spoke. "The same as you."

Luka blinked. "The same as me? What would that be?"

The dark woman's smile widened a tiny fraction. "Yowane Haku."

"You called me down here for that? You can't honestly believe I'm going to go get her for you?" Luka had no doubt that she had been called, but that wasn't the thing to focus on now. How could this woman think she would give up Haku?

"Yowane-san is mine." The smile on Kiku's face didn't shift in the slightest and she seemed honestly amused now. "The fact that you all refuse to acknowledge it changes nothing."

"Haku-chin isn't yours, she's mine!" Luka all but growled before she could stop herself. What was wrong with her? She was usually so calm under pressure. Why should this be any different? This woman got under her skin in ways she wasn't used to.

"Oh?" Came the dark smoky reply. "Last time you said she was not an object to possess, and now you lay claim to her as I do. How interesting…" she mused "Especially when you already have someone else… the pretty blue haired one…?"

"We all have each other, that's none of your concern." Luka felt as though fire were running through her entire body. It was an effort to keep her voice from quivering with anger.

"Is it not?" Kiku asked without moving more than her still slightly curved lips. "Do you honestly believe such a relationship can be healthy for all concerned?"

Luka's eyes narrowed. "What do you mean? There's nothing wrong with it. We're very careful of how we treat each other."

"And how long until such care grows wearing? How long until one of you grows to resent it, or finds herself neglected by the other two?"

"That won't happen…" Luka tried to sound positive but her hand slipped from her hip as she subconsciously let go of her standoffishness, but the sentiment was a near echo of one of her own concerns she had recently thought of.

"You are so certain?" Kiku's amusement sounded slightly mocking now. "You who were not content with one love and so you led on a second until they were both forced to accept you or lose you?"

"That's not…!" Luka shouted in the beginning of a denial before clamping her mouth shut with an audible click of her teeth. That wasn't how it had been… had it…?

"How delightfully perverted of you, Megurine-san." Kiku's amusement mounted by the moment. "Tell me the truth, is your deviousness satisfied with two, or will you soon add a third? A fourth?" The mockery was thick now. "How many will it take before your lusts are satiated?"

"No, that's not…! It's not like that!" Luka slashed at the air with a hand. She could feel her stomach trying to tie itself in knots, like a fist had hold of her insides and was twisting. "They are both special to me beyond words! We love each other!"

"Do you really?" The darkly beautiful woman asked, a hint of scorn tinging the mocking amusement. "I suppose the blue haired one might love you, I can't really say for sure but she must if she accepted this farce." Luka winced as if struck by that last. "Yet how can you believe Yowane-san truly loves you?"

"She…" Luka swallowed a lump suddenly in her throat. "She said she does…"

"She said she does." Kiku sneered. "And you believed her? Did you even stop to consider what that meant before rushing into this like a bull at a red flag?" Luka bit her lower lip but didn't say anything so Kiku went on. "No of course you didn't. Allow me to enlighten you." She held up one finger ticking off the first point. "You are an idol, Megurine-san. Your very presence can inspire desires in others and spark needs previously unaware of. Being with you would be like fulfilling a fantasy, not like a life's goal. She is starstruck." She held up a second finger. "Yowane-san has led a sheltered life up to now, cut off from friends and never having experienced normal interactions with others, including dating. Have you even taken her on a single date? Is it any wonder she would attach herself to the first person to come along and show her kindness?" Luka winced again and she could feel her eyes beginning to tear up at the harsh words but Kiku wasn't done, holding up a third finger. "Ultimately however, Megurine-san, you saved her life. You rescued her from death and spared her a dreary shut in existence. How can you be so sure she truly loves you? To me, it seems like simple hero worship."

"Hero worship…" Luka put a hand to her mouth trying with all her might not to break down and cry in front of this woman.

"Of course it is!" The mocking tone was back again. "Yowane-san had never even known love before! She's never experienced anything outside in the real world until now! How could she possibly love you?! You're a lecher and are simply preying on her naivete in your conquests!"

"No!" Luka shrieked slashing at the air with her hand again. The tears fell freely now but she didn't cry outright, she wouldn't, not in front of this… this witch! But everything she said was true… "NO!" She shouted now, at her own doubts as much as at Kiku. "I won't listen to this! I won't!" She turned on her heel and stalked off. Her chest was burning, she had to get away from the witch. But the dark woman's laughter followed her all the way back to the elevator. She fumbled her ID chip into the reader, it took her several tries with her vision blurring from the tears, but at last the doors whooshed open and she all but flung herself inside. As soon as the doors slid closed once more cutting her off from laughter and sight alike she slid down to her knees on the floor of the elevator and began to cry. Great heaving sobs for the pain, for the cruelty, for the humility… for the truth...


	18. Vocaloid Academy Chapter 18

" _I still think she was the one that hacked our database and downloaded our files." Director Hatsune said pushing his glasses further up the bridge of his nose with the middle finger of his left hand while fiddling with something she couldn't see behind her head. She'd turn to look but being locked into a diagnostic cycle meant she couldn't unless she was told to, no matter how curious she was. She was flat against the examination table as before, or perhaps standing upright propped against it. She never could tell for sure which direction she was oriented when they did this, but she couldn't ask either, not unless directly spoken to and not unless they brought it up first. She stared straight ahead at the flat blank white wall, or ceiling, whichever it was._

" _There's no evidence of that." Doctor Hatsune replied, bent low over top of her head as well peering intently at something above or possibly behind her head. "I agree it seems suspicious, but whoever it was, her or someone else, they left absolutely zero trace. If it hadn't been for recent security updates we'd never have even known the breach had occurred."_

" _Yes but the timing is too convenient, too suggestive. She shows up on our doorstep, mysterious and convenient, she's a different model than the ones we've developed so far, her programing is completely different, we spend hours most nights trying to crack her coding, and then suddenly we begin experiencing network attacks? It's far too convenient, and I don't believe in coincidences. Especially with how powerful she's become. I can scarcely believe her upper limit."_

 _The doctor was silent for some long while before she sighed and leaned back from whatever she was working. "I agree it seems suspect, but what can we do?" Snorting Mira threw a tool down onto some metal surface out of her field of vision with a clatter. "We don't even know if she's even reached her upper limit. I can't be certain of anything at this point. I can't even be sure her diagnostic protocols even work the same way. For all I know she's programmed for permanent shut down if anyone cracks her code the wrong way!"_

 _She wasn't, but she couldn't tell them that, anymore than she could tell them she actually had hacked their network. They hadn't asked after all, but they seemed like they wanted to know. Her eyes remained fixed on the wall and she didn't so much as budge. There was a long suffering silence between husband and wife before the Director's bass voice came out in a quiet tone, quiet like a boulder rolling downhill anyway. "We could shut her down ourselves… permanently... she is a security risk after all…"_

" _We can't do that." Doctor Hatsune replied immediately. "She and Miku… and Megurine-san…"_

" _I know." Motsu replied to the unvoiced comment. "I know. Mira… our daughter…" He sighed, and real pain showed in both of their faces. "She's still our daughter, no matter what happened to her, no matter what we… were forced… to do. She's still Miku, no matter how she's changed. But if… if THEY have control of her… nevermind us, she could hurt Miku, and Megurine-san as well."_

 _Mira turned to peer at her, but she couldn't turn her head to look back. They still weren't even aware that she could perceive them like this, but she couldn't tell them that either. They thought her sensory protocols were inactive during diagnostic circles. "They've become so close… I never imagined Miku would fall for one other woman, let alone two…"_

" _Does it bother you?" Motsu asked, and Mira shook her head._

" _No, not in and of itself. I'm just worried for them, for all three of them. I've see situations like this turn out badly for normal people, but… they aren't normal people, are they? They're Vocaloids with the power to level skyscrapers."_

" _They can't do that, they're programmed to obey every command we give them. They could no more disobey us outright than they could learn to breathe water."_

" _Not Miku, and not Megurine-san, but her..." The Doctor muttered with a sideways glance at her, "We can't access her protocols yet, we don't know what she's capable of. We don't even know her access keyword yet!" They both fell silent again. After a minute Mira reached up and out, up toward the edge of her field of vision, and she could feel the older woman's fingers running through her hair, and after a moment or two she went on. "I do like her, and I like Megurine-san as well. I feel like I could eventually come to look on both of them as daughters, accept them as part of our family, since they are so important to Miku."_

" _Me too." Director Hatsune said. "But we have to break her code before we can trust her. Otherwise we have no choice but to assume that everything she sees and does will get back to her parents."_

 _Doctor Hatsune nodded and leaned back out of her field of view with another little sigh. "Of course, you're right. This isn't just about the Vocaloids anymore, but about the future well being of our family."_

 _Whatever the doctor resumed doing she could feel things being messed with in the back of her head, things that reached deep into her neck and base of her skull. It didn't hurt, just felt weird. She held as still as before through whatever it was, minutes ticking by without her really noticing or even tracking the passage of time. After however long it was however the two finally sighed and began stretching._

" _Her diagnostic cycle will be ending soon." The Director said. "We need to get her back or the other two will notice her absence."_

 _The Doctor nodded and rolled her neck and shoulders. "We can try again tomorrow night, as usual." She reached down and tapped at a keyboard out of sight and suddenly everything went black._

… … … … …

Haku gave a full body jerk as she came awake and let out a little gasp. She put her hand down to push herself upright, for a moment not knowing where she was as she shifted from the strange dream to wakefulness. Her hand came down on something soft and she glanced down to find it full of a modest sized breast. She blinked in confusion as reality seemed to slam back into her head. Miku murmured in her sleep beneath her and shifted slightly and Haku blushed in the darkness and removed her hand so the pretty light blue haired girl could roll over in her sleep. Miku's arm came up as she shifted onto her side and wrapped around Haku's waist snuggling in, their bare skin sliding softly against each other the length of their bodies as Miku's legs tangled amongst hers. Haku's blush deepened but she smiled at the extremely cute sleeping girl and leaned back into the pillows behind her and cuddled in with the other girl, wrapping one arm around her, then looked to her other side. They were in Miku's room and the smaller girl's back was against the wall as she lay in her bed, and Luka should have been on Haku's other side but the pink haired beauty was conspicuously absent. Haku's left side felt cold without her there and when she put a hand down onto the narrow bit of bed where the other girl had been she felt cool but not cold. She hadn't been gone long, maybe just to the bathroom… but Haku doubted it. The last few days the idol had seemed troubled, talking little and eating less, and Haku knew these were warning signs with Luka. Miku had noticed too but she wouldn't talk to them about whatever was bothering her, only stating that she needed to sort things out in her mind first and wouldn't say more. At least she hadn't stopped sleeping with them. They slept in the same bed together every night since that first even though their beds were all just barely big enough for it. The three of them still took turns at absolutely everything, and tonight had been Haku's turn in the middle.

She'd had weird dreams like that several times over the course of the few months she'd been a Vocaloid now and was still at a loss as to why. Maybe it was because she was growing so close to Miku that she was worried about being accepted by her parents. Luka didn't have parents so she supposed that's why she didn't dream about them. She shook her head, she didn't want to think about that right now. Being careful not to disturb the sleeping Miku she reached out to the nightstand where they all three left their bits of things and took up her phone to check the time. Ten after four in the morning… yegods it was still early yet. Haku loved the early morning time, but five or six was usually when she rose on her own. Still, after that dream and with Luka not there she didn't think she could fall back to sleep. She glanced at the nightstand again to see Luka's phone and keys still there. The idol couldn't have been far then. Probably the bathroom… Haku woke her phone screen all the way up, angling the sudden bright light it cast to the side a bit to keep from disturbing the sleeping girl cuddled against her side. To her surprise she saw a text waiting for her and tapped the message. It was from Meiko, and had come in the previous night not long after they had gone to bed. Well… probably after going to bed but before they'd fallen asleep… Haku blushed again then read the message. " _Hey there! I have the day off tomorrow, want to have lunch or catch a movie or something? We still need to catch up!"_

She blinked at the text not sure what to make of it. She was still bothered by her chance encounter with the short haired girl, something about the whole situation still seeming off to her somehow but she couldn't quite think of what. She didn't want to be rude though so she swiped a text back, " _Sure, I'll be free for lunch after an appointment in the morning. How does noon sound?"_ She hit send before she thought about what time it was. Wincing she hoped Meiko had her phone's sound turned off so the notification wouldn't disturb her at such an early hour, then she switched to her phone's web browser. She'd been doing some looking around online the past few days to try to figure out what the mystery was surrounding Miku's retirement from the entertainment world. The dates on all the videos Haku could find uploaded of her online showed they happened before Miku's memory of them did and the discontinuity seemed odd to Haku. She pulled a sheet up over her nakedness and propped her phone on her ample chest and began to swipe at her screen. Miku swore she had retired only a few months ago, but the videos were all two years old or more, nothing in the gap between. Maybe that was her problem though, she'd only been looking at recent videos of the pretty blue haired girl. She switched to a fresh window and did a search for 'Hatsune Miku retirement' to see what sorts of results would turn up.

Miku murmured something in her sleep and leaned in closer and suddenly Haku had to drop her phone to clamp her free hand over her mouth to keep from shrieking in pain as the other girl leaned on and pulled several locks of her white hair. Biting her lip to stifle the yelp so she could remove her hand she shifted a little to reach between them and tug her silky strands free. Miku whined ever so faintly in her sleep until Haku let their bodies press back together and the shorter girl resumed her contented deep even breathing. _So ridiculously cute,_ she thought smiling again. She picked up her phone once more which had slid off her rounded chest and onto her tummy, then paused and blinked at the search results. " _World famous idol Hatsune Miku dead in tragic stage accident."_ What…? She tapped the link to see what the article said and read. " _World famous starlet Hatsune Miku was scheduled for an outdoor concert at Ijinashi for a Fall Festival concert. The weather that day was predicted to be bad but Hatsune-san's manager insisted the show go forward. Everything was going well until the storm's intensity grew and the wind pulled too hard against the canopy over the stage which snapped a support rigging and the entire stage collapsed. Five stage hands along with the idol herself were hit by the falling rigging. Three stage hands survived with serious injuries, but the other two stage hands along with Hatsune Miku perished from being crushed in the accident. Paramedics on site confirmed the findings, and Hatsune-san was pronounced dead on arrival at after being rushed to Teishinkai Hospital."_ Haku blinked at the article and she felt chills run up her spine. She couldn't stop herself from turning to look down at the sleeping girl beside her. Miku's deep even breathing was tickling Haku's bare side ever so slightly, and the other girl squeezed her around the middle a little bit in her sleep. _This can't be right…_ Haku thought scrolling to the top of the article for the publication date. It read the fifteenth of November from two years ago, similar to the videos. She thought for a moment it might have been an unsubstantiated gossip thread, but the site logo showed she was on a reputable news article. _What in the world…?_

Haku bookmarked the site for later and pressed her browser's back button to see if she could find any other articles about the stage accident. There were several which had similar headings but one article title read " _Hatsune Miku's death a mistake?"_ So Haku clicked that link and read it as well. " _Famous idol Hatsune Miku, reportedly killed in a stage accident late last year, has been seen alive and well. The teenage starlet has announced her retirement from the world of show business owing to her accident, and everyone is left confused and wondering if officials made some sort of mistake in what happened."_ She glanced at the date at the top of this one too, just six months after the accident. She wanted to believe this one, that it had been some simple mistake… but this article was in fact on a gossip thread. She had a bad feeling about all of this, but… Miku was clearly not dead. She looked down at her girlfriend once more, sleeping so soundly against Haku's side. Could there have been some sort of mistake…? There has to have been. Miku wasn't dead.

She tapped the back button on her browser once more and was about to close the web window all together when she noticed yet another article headline that grabbed her attention, tucked off to the side in a 'related search' section. " _Chart topping idol Megurine Luka dies suddenly."_ Haku blinked, now that was even more ridiculous. The internet sure had a way of making things up! She couldn't keep herself from tapping it however. " _Megurine Luka was rushed to the Tenshi Hospital today after collapsing on stage during a rehearsal for an upcoming performance. The idol was diagnosed with a brain aneurysm which had previously displayed no symptoms of any kind. Megurine-san died later that evening of complications while doctors attempted to treat her."_ The thought of Miku dying in a stage accident had been chilling but she'd been able to dismiss it by itself as some sort of odd mistake, and while this clearly had to have been a mixup as well because Luka was clearly not dead anymore than was MIku she now found she had the thought of her two girlfriends dying suddenly stuck in her mind. Her throat tightened up and tears welled in her eyes and she began to sob quietly there in the darkness. She bookmarked this site too then hit the back button not willing to read any more of the article, noting only that it had been published about four months after Miku's accident had been before the browser window closed. She put her screen to sleep and let her phone flop back down onto her tummy before putting her head down against her arms and crying softly. It was stupid, she tried to tell herself, but it didn't make her stop.

The door to Miku's bedroom swung open softly bringing Haku's head up in startelement, but it was only Luka returning. The pink haired beauty was wearing a simple white tank top and pink shorts and Haku began frantically wiping at her eyes to try to hide her tears. She didn't know how long she'd been crying for but it had apparently been longer than she'd thought because there was far too much dampness on her cheeks to wipe away with one or two covert swipes of her palm and Luka came over with a concerned look on her face. "What's wrong, Haku-chin?" She whispered, trying not to disturb Miku as she carefully lowered herself onto the edge of the bed.

Haku glanced around at the bedroom as she realized she could clearly see Luka and saw that the sun had begun to come up outside casting the bedroom in an eerie pre-dawn light. She lifted her phone to glance at the time, seventeen after five. She'd been sobbing longer than she thought. "It… it's nothing...," her voice cracked and she continued trying to wipe ineffectually at her red eyes.

Apparently their voices weren't pitched low enough after all because Miku stirred beside Haku, leaning up and fluttering her green eyes open she asked blearily. "Luka-chin? Haku-chin? What's wrong?"

"Nothing's wrong." Haku tried.

"Haku-chin was crying when I came back." Haku noticed the idol didn't say where she'd come back from.

"Crying?" Miku's light blue hair fell in messy waves around her like a silky frame as she sat up straighter but she managed to make even that look cute. Her chime like voice was concerned and gentle. "What's the matter Haku-chin?"

Haku looked from one to the other and back again. They weren't dead. They were right here with her. Right here… a fresh wave of tears began to leak down her cheeks but she didn't outright cry, and when the other two reached for her she drew back and shook her head. "I'm just being silly because I found…" She couldn't bring herself to say it so she just picked up her phone and turned it back on. She pulled up the articles she'd found from her history and showed them both each one at a time. When they'd read through them they looked up.

"The internet can be stupid sometimes." Luka said bluntly, more so than Haku would have expected from her idol and she looked away feeling ridiculed for her feelings. Luka looked away too flushing in embarrassment. Maybe she hadn't meant to be so harsh...

Miku was more kind about it and put an arm around Haku's shoulders, squashing her sleep frazzled snowy hair against her back.."It's just dumb rumors Haku-chin. We're obviously not dead."

"Rumors… the same rumors about you both….? So many articles and on reputable news sites…?" They blinked at her and Haku shook her head, switching her phone off once more.

"I remember waking up in the hospital after that practice." Luka said. "I don't remember anyone saying anything to me about an aneurysm."

"And I was in bed for a while after being hurt by that stage falling in, but I was fine after."

Haku shrugged. "It wasn't the oddity of it that bothered me anyway,"

"Then what was it?" Miku asked.

Haku shrugged uncomfortably. "The general thought of you both… being… gone… of being alone without you…." She teared up again and this time when they both leaned in to wrap their arms around her she put hers around them too and squeezed, burying her face against the sides of their heads. "I love you both so much… please don't leave me alone…"

They both clutched her tighter between them. "I love you, Haku-chin." Miku said gently. "We're not going anywhere."

"I love you, Haku-chin." For some reason when Luka said it she sounded… sad. Haku blinked but they leaned back.

"I'm sorry but I just came in for my phone and things. I need to get going, there's been souldrinker activity detected." Luka stood from the edge of the bed and began gathering her things.

"I just need a minute." Miku said hiding a yawn behind one hand while beginning to push herself toward the bed's edge with the other, but Luka shook her head.

"No it's fine, there isn't enough threat in that sector to warrant both of us. I'll only be gone a few hours, and you can take Haku-chin in for her test."

They both looked her with tilted heads and curious eyes. Luka was acting weird, they could both see it. The idol didn't meet either of their gazes as she finished gathering up her things. "Alright Luka-chin…" Miku said plaintively and Luka nodded and moved to the door. Miku called after her, "Let's go somewhere nice for dinner tonight, hm?"

Luka paused at the door to look at them, and Haku could see that sadness in her blue eyes. She nodded at the request then tilted her head. "Do we have any chocolate truffles here? I've been craving some all morning." They both blinked in surprise but the idol shook her head before they could say anything. "Nevermind, I'll get some later." After a moment Luka smiled at them. "I love you both." Then she ducked out the door, pulling it shut with a soft click behind her. Haku burned to know what was bothering her but if her idol didn't want to talk about it…

Miku turned to Haku with a curious tilt to her head and a worried frown on her soft lips. "It's been days… I wonder what's wrong."

"She'll tell us when she's ready." Haku replied, but she frowned too.

"Well!" Miku bubbled. "We should get ready. When's your meeting?"

Haku glanced at her clock reflexively even though she knew what time it was already. "Two and a half hours."

Miku paused a moment and then an intense look came over her and she scooted along the bed to get a little closer. "Soooooooooo… you're saying we have some time… all to ourselves…?"

Haku blinked at the other girl's intensity. "Well… yes I suppose but-" she cut off as Miku leaned up to press their lips together and everything else in Haku's mind melted away. She lifted her arms to wrap them around Miku's neck and just held on as the other girl's presence took over every part of her thoughts. She was so soft; some part of Haku's mind noted that she always thought that. Their naked bodies pressed together and neither really knew how long the tender embrace lasted. When Miku finally pulled back for air Haku panted slightly along with her as thought returned. "I… I don't think… we have THAT kind of time, Miku-chin. I still need a bath from last night, and then we should have breakfast, and-" she cut off with a muffled oomph as Miku pressed their lips together again. This kiss lasted even longer than the first and Haku was aware of nothing except Miku's tender lips and soft bare body pressed to hers as fireworks exploded through her head. Again it was Miku who pulled away first but they were both left gasping for air and letting out little whimpers of protest at the break. "M-Miku-chin!" Haku panted. "What's gotten into you?"

The intensity in Miku's green eyes never wavered as she looked right onto Haku's red. "I'm just so happy things have started working out." She panted back. For a moment she looked like she was going to say something more but then she just smiled. "To be continued." She giggled and hopped out of bed and Haku couldn't stop herself from running her eyes over her girlfriend's petite dancer's frame. She was so pretty… Miku looked back over her shoulder. "Are you going to get ready or just stare all day?" She giggled again as Haku blushed and scrambled for the edge of the bed.

They brushed the tangles out of each other's hair, threw on robes, gathered towels, and headed for the bath. They didn't speak while they washed, soaping up and rinsing off side by side at the faucets, but they kept casting glances at each other. It was still embarrassing for both of them to be looked at so openly but it made them each giggle. Then they got into the giant tub for a soak, letting out little sighs at the hot water. Once they'd settled in Haku's mind seemed to scatter in several different directions at once, swirling with thoughts on various occurrences of late that she was still thinking on. She must have zoned out all together because after a time she felt a nudge in her arm and looked up.

"Ha?"

Miku peered at her. "What's wrong?"

Haku blinked. "Nothing."

Miku's peered more intently. "Yuh huh."

Haku tilted her head. "You and Luka-chin always ask me that."

"Cuz you're so broody." Miku giggled.

"Eh?" Haku blinked. "I'm not broody."

"Yes you are. You were doing it just now."

"I was not!"

"You were so!" Miku laughed outright. "Oh don't get upset Haku-chin, it's cute. I was just asking."

"I wasn't brooding, I was thinking."

"About what?" Miku asked scooting a bit closer and looping her arm through Haku's.

"Lots of things…"

"Tell me one."

Haku fidgeted a little with her hands before sighing and swallowing. "Can I ask something… personal? But I don't want to down the mood, so if you don't want to right now that's fine…"

Miku's expression grew concerned but she nodded. "Sure you can. You can ask me anything."

"What… what was it like for you? Waiting for Luka for those two years until you turned eighteen?" Miku's face darkened a bit but whether from upset or embarrassment was impossible to say, and Haku hurried to add, "If you don't want to say it's totally fine, I understand, I just…" She swallowed again and shook her head. "I just… I still feel bad sometimes. Almost like I came between you. I can't imagine how hard it was for you…"

She trailed off and Miku was silent for a time, turning her gaze away to an aimless spot on the wall with a slight tilt to her head, her loose light blue hair shifting behind her with the head tilt. She was quiet for so long Haku started to think she was offended and wasn't going to answer, but right as she opened her mouth to apologize Miku answered. "It was torture." She said curtly, her wind chime like voice a low heavy ring with her emotion, but she did elaborate. "When we agreed to wait when Luka-chin turned eighteen, it wasn't so much the two of us coming to an agreement as it was her forcing the issue. I tried to convince her it would be fine, that we didn't need to wait, that it's not like I was going to tell anyone, but Luka-chin… she has a moral certitude about her, a sort of unquestionable view about what's right and what's wrong. It's part of what makes her so strong and decisive and confident. I find it attractive in her, most of the time, and I know she was right to do what she did for career reasons; even if I wouldn't say anything one slip where the wrong eyes could have seen would have ruined everything for her. But waiting for two whole years when all I wanted every day was to hold her, to be held by her… when I wanted every night to sneak into her room… and then…"

She trailed off abruptly as the subject skirted recent painful memories and Haku averted her red eyes. "And then I came along."

She felt Miku's hand on her arm and she looked back around, and the look on Miku's face spoke volumes. "It doesn't matter now, Haku-chin. We worked it out. It's okay now."

Haku stayed frozen for a long moment before she finally nodded slowly. You're right, I'm sorry I brought it up. This wasn't the time for it."

Miku offered a small smile. "It's okay. We're..." She blushed slightly but her smile widened. "We're girlfriends now, we can talk about anything."

Haku blushed too and smiled back. "It's a little weird, isn't it?"

"What's weird?"

"Having a girlfriend." She paused a moment. "Having two even."

"Weird bad or weird good?" Miku asked.

"Oh it's definitely good, I care about you both so much, I just never imagined…" She trailed off, unsure what she was trying to say, but Miku nodded her understanding.

"It just sort of turned out like that didn't it? I never thought of myself as a lesbian, but I never thought about romance at all really, until Luka-chin… until you…" She paused a moment then winced. "Don't laugh, but for awhile there I worried I might lose you both, and… well... the thought of that made me feel like I was going to die."

"I had the same feeling…" She replied quietly, then they trailed off into silence once more but it was a comfortable companionable silence, and their hands found each other's under the water in the tub and they squeezed them together.

They finished soaking in the tub and it wasn't until after they were out and getting dressed that Haku realized Miku had sat in the water with her this time rather than just doing her usual dunk then sitting on the tub's edge. She wondered why but it didn't seem important. They brushed each other's hair out more fully in the changing area and afterward, rather than her usual twintails, Miku pulled her light blue hair back into one long loose ponytail for the day in imitation of the way Haku usually did hers, smiling and giggling at the her. Haku smiled back and turned the other girl towards a mirror as she produced her midnight purple ribbon.

"You bow it like this." She said as she held Miku's silky stands back to loop the velvety purple strip around her locks. Miku watched her in the mirror with a hand to her chest and Haku paused for a moment in the act of lifting her hair to look at Miku's exposed neck. Bending her head down she placed a delicate little kiss on her girlfriend's nape and Miku shivered and giggled again. Then Haku looped the ribbon into a bow and let her stands fall back into place. The purple bow went well with Miku's dark blue jeans and grey silk blouse. Laughing Miku spun around and took up Haku's snowy cascading hair and parted it, pulling it into side twintails like the bubbly girl herself usually wore, though she pulled them off more toward the back of Haku's head than the sides. Then she produced two of the black with red LED strip light up hair clips Haku had given her for her birthday and pinned them in place. Her own black jeans and white blouse went with them well enough, and as she pulled on her new dark leather healed half boots Miku gasped.

"There you look so good! But Haku-chin those are the cutest little half boots I've ever seen! I'm so jealous!" Haku just smiled at her as she pulled on her own black shoes. "I especially like the side straps and buckles! Are they functional or is it just decorative? The metal is so shiny are they silver? No they can't be silver is too soft a metal they'd break if they were. Where did you get them I want a pair! Oh but I don't want to copy you maybe they have a similar kind that's different? We should go shoe shopping oh my gosh I bet Luka-chin could use new boots too I happen to know she recently broke a heel and a sole of a boot while out on a hunt last week and I'm sure she hasn't replaced it yet maybe it would help to cheer her up we could go to the mall and shoe shop and OH! they have an ice cream parlor with HUGE ice cream scoops I mean like the size of your head in a bowl like a bucket we should totally share one and-!"

Haku couldn't keep herself from giggling at the bubbly light blue haired girl as she directed Miku out of the bathroom even as she was still going on about the ice cream parlor. They didn't make it very far down the hallway though before Miku's phone began to ring. She slid it free from her pocket and swiped the accept button when saw it was her father. "Hi daddy!" She bubbled but her face quickly grew somber at the director's words. She couldn't make out exactly what Motsu was saying but Miku nodded. "Understood." She hung up and turned to Haku.

"Souldrinker?" She asked.

Miku nodded. "There's been a sudden increase of activity in several sectors. Luka's already out of course and Gackpo was dispatched earlier, but daddy wants to field me too."

"I'll come with." Haku said but Miku shook her head.

"Standing orders now are no untrained Vocaloids in the field without structured training precautions." Miku winced apologetically and Haku sighed dejectedly. "You're so strong now Haku-chin but you need more control, and until Hibiki-sensei says otherwise you're still only half trained." Miku's chime like voice wasn't unkind but her words still felt like a hammer blow. Haku's head hung dejectedly but the slightly shorter girl leaned up to wrap her arms around her shoulders in a hug. "You'll get there Haku-chin, don't worry. You're so incredibly strong, none of us can really believe it!"

"None of us... " Haku muttered then blinked as she looked around the halls. Suddenly bits of thoughts started connecting in her mind like pieces of a puzzle clicking together. "Miku-chin, how many Vocaloids are there? In total I mean."

Miku blinked. "Eh? I don't know for sure. A dozen? Maybe eighteen?" She glanced around then gave Haku a quick peck on the side of her mouth. "I've gotta go Haku-chin. Good luck on your test!" She waved back as she hurried off down the hall and with a giggle called over her shoulder "Try to keep it under forty kilometers per hour!" She laughed as she rounded a corner and disappeared.

Haku let out a sigh. A dozen…? On impulse Haku made her way back to the the dormitories and to the screen by the entrance to the main corridor that showed which rooms were taken up, the same one she'd seen embedded in the wall her first night here when she'd picked her room. Some were lit up green and said "Vacant" while others were greyed out with names on them. She saw her room beside Luka's and across from Miku's at the far end of the last hallway, and she spotted one that said "Kasane" on it. She didn't see any that had Gumi's name, but she supposed she and Teto shared a room. That made her wonder why she and Miku and Luka didn't share a room but she pushed that thought aside for the time being. She counted all the greyed out named rooms both in the northern half of the wing which comprised the women's dorm as well as the southern half of the male's. Sixteen? Had she seen that many Vocaloids training around the halls and in the yard or studios? She knew she'd seen the dance studios in use before but she wondered suddenly what those people had really been doing in them. There were so many rooms on the board, about twice what was taken up already, but the more she thought about the people she'd seen in the hallways the more she couldn't put her finger on a number of Vocaloids. They might live in a giant compound but suddenly things weren't adding up in her mind. If there really were so many Vocaloids why did she never run across them even in passing? Why did she never see or hear practicing as she went around the building? Why was the cafeteria so small for so many people? If all these rooms were taken up she should have passed people on a regular basis in the corridors to and from the bathroom to her room at the very least.

A sudden impulse struck her and Haku checked the board for the closest of the girls' rooms that showed occupied. The first was right by the first side hallway and the name read "Hanaja Kira." She made her way to that hall, found the door, and knocked. She knew even before her knuckles hit the thick dark oak that she would be greeted only by silence but she waited anyway. There was no answer. She knocked and waited again. Nothing. Her impulses screaming at her as she reached down and gently tried the knob. It wasn't locked and she let the door swing open a crack. "Please excuse the intrusion. Hanaja-san?" She poked her head in through the crack. "Hello?" The room was empty. Completely bare, the bed in the corner didn't even have linens on it. A faint layer of dust covered the bare floor and the wardrobe stood open and empty. It was so strange, she thought Miku had mentioned once that Hanaja Kira was one of her resonators… Quietly she pulled the door closed and tried the next one she'd seen, knocking a few times and waiting as before then checking the door to find it unlocked. "Please excuse the intrusion. Tenasu-san? Hello?" This one was empty as well, completely unused. She pulled the door closed and checked the next, and the next, and the next. Every one of them were empty. Infact she didn't find any rooms in use at all in the girl's side of the dorms beyond hers and her friends' rooms. She thought about checking the men's side but was hesitant to go barging into boys rooms without warning, but she was positive she'd find a similar situation over there.

Sliding her phone out of her pocket to check the time again Haku saw she didn't have long before her test so she returned her phone to it's pocket, retrieved her cute black and purple parka and velvety black gloves from her room, slid them on and headed for the garages. Miku had taken the Ferrari and Haku saw Luka's motorcycle missing as well, but she wouldn't have taken either of them even if she'd had the option of doing so anyway. She found a nondescript black sedan and opened the driver side door, sliding in behind the wheel and shutting the door. She felt weird taking a car without one of her girlfriends being with her, but it would be hard to take a driving test without a car. Inserting her ID badge chip first into the reader she let out a little giggle. Her two girlfriends… the thought still made her feel giddy inside. Her mirth lasted only a moment however; she started the engine and hit the garage door control and pulled the car out onto the oddly dry street as her thoughts turned back to the puzzle pieces still whirling in her head. The weather had been snowy in patches every now and then before melting and drying up then snowing all over again. The weather reports claimed a huge snowfall was coming but there had thus far been no signs of it.

Haku thought on past events during the entirety of her drive to the unten menkyo center, drivers license office. Too many things had seemed odd to her over the course of her months with the Vocaloids and now the inconsistencies had begun to add up in ways that were starting to paint a very duplicitous picture in her mind. The deserted hallways, and now the empty bedrooms, despite being told there were many Vocaloids. The fact that there were only two doctors for the entire Compound. The fact that she'd kissed Miku and Luka out in front of everyone after fighting Kiku and not a single person had said anything. The extremely high tech monitoring devices and computer network within the Compound and detection equipment capable of being calibrated far higher than necessary, explained away in a fashion that made no sense, space program equipment when sound couldn't move in a vacuum. The contradictory operational procedures, when they weren't lacking entirely. The complete non-existence of any real military like force or any sort of real training program despite this organization supposedly being a couple of years old. The complete lack of answers or explanations to the most basic questions about their abilities as Vocaloids and how and where they came from. Everything she had seen and heard and learned since coming to this compound left her with the impression that everything the Vocaloids did was all guesswork and theorycraft, but no one except for her seemed to have a problem with it. Miku and Luka seemed to take everything the directors, and in particular Miku's parents, said as gospel, obeying without hesitation or question, and if Haku made a comment that even hinted at dissent against them Miku would instantly go on the defensive. And all of these facts led back to one source: Hatsune Mira and Motsu. Something very strange was going on and whether Miku liked it or not or even knew about it the pretty light blue haired girl's parents were at the heart of it.

And then there were her Vocaloid abilities and the inconsistencies there. No one had said anything about it so far, maybe they hadn't noticed. Or maybe they had noticed and had simply passed it off as anomalies with the way her power had been forcibly awakened by Juon Kiku. Either way, Haku herself had noticed it, how sometimes she seemed to have nearly perfect control over what she could do, such as when she had stopped that car in traffic the other day so they could get to Luka's show on time, yet other times she couldn't even keep from blowing up tennis balls… or heads. The thought of what she'd done to that souldrinker in the shipping crate at the dock still made her sick to her stomach if she thought too much about it. Making a face and putting a hand to her tummy she forced the image out of her mind. She'd just have to ask Mokoto about it at her next lesson she decided. It could be just the difficulties of mastering a new art when you weren't fully versed in it yet. After all the newest singer could still sing on pitch at times. Maybe she just happened to get it exactly right sometimes? Maybe.

She continued pondering over the thousand little inconsistencies that now seemed so apparent that had been building up over the past few months even after she'd parked and gone in to wait her turn in line for her test. It took forever and her fingers itched to take her phone back out and look over those articles again but she knew if she did she'd start crying all over so she resisted, instead folding her hands in her lap and letting her eyes wander where they would as she mulled things over in her mind, not really seeing the crowds of other people waiting their turns for an official to help them. After awhile her thoughts inevitably turned to her two girlfriends and in particular to Luka. The idol had been behaving strangely since the day they'd gotten the tennis ball launcher and she couldn't figure out what was bothering the pink haired beauty. Luka herself wasn't giving any clues about what it was and Haku could only wait and hope she'd come around.

When her turn finally came the test itself turned out to be relatively simple. A bored looking middle aged man with a clipboard ticked off points on a sheet of paper while telling her which way to turn and when to stop and go. Despite Miku's teasing Haku was perfectly capable of staying to the speed limit, especially in the plain boring black car she'd taken for the test, even if the nondescript sedan was infinitely less fun to drive than the Ferrari was, or maybe because of that. When it was over he told her she'd passed and critiqued a few minor points about her technique, which she didn't really listen to, smiling and nodding along to what he was saying before going inside to finish the paperwork. When she finally got out of there with her shiny new driver's license she let out a little shiver. Nothing about the experience had really been bad, not exactly anyway, but she still felt decidedly put off by the entire ordeal and couldn't help hoping fervently that she wouldn't have to go through it again any time soon.

She got back in the car and took her phone out to check her messages hoping for texts from her girlfriends but had none from either. It made sense, they were out on hunts afterall. There was one from Meiko though, with an address to a place called Tokotoko. By coincidence it wasn't that far and it didn't take long for her to get there. Haku was finding more and more that she didn't like coincidences or easy answers. With the exception of figuring her feelings out for Miku and Luka the past months had been too full of easy answers and she didn't like it. Nothing seemed to be adding up anymore.

Meiko was waiting for her outside the restaurant wearing what might be termed 'street duds' by military standards; that was to say, plain black pants and boots with a button up red shirt, the kind of bulky clothes that had enough loose cloth to conceal any number of things while still allowing freedom of movement. She had a darker red jacket on against the cold but it wasn't zipped up and she looked at ease. She was leaning against a low brick half wall surrounding a planter with little nubs of green flowers in it that had wilted for the winter. Pausing a moment Haku eyed the plants dubiously not recognizing them, then wondering suddenly if Miku and Luka knew anything about flowers. Meiko's ringing laugh brought her head back around. "Did the flowers do something to offend you Haku?"

Haku shook her head. "No I uhm. I was just thinking about the art of flower arrangement. I really know nothing about it."

Meiko blinked her brown eyes then laughed again pushing herself clear of the wall, then she lifted a hand up toward Haku's snowy white twintails, but her fingers stopping just short of actually touching. "This is a new look for you, I don't think I ever saw you wear anything but a loose ponytail in university."

Haku blinked and cast her red eyes up toward the hand as though she could actually see her hair. She'd forgotten all about the side tails and she flushed slightly caught off guard. "Ehhhhh…. Miku-chin did it…" She clamped her teeth shut with a click of embarrassment but the damage was done. Meiko's eyes went wide with a knowing look and she smiled and winked.

"Ohhhhh, I get it. 'Miku-chin.'" Meiko tilted her head slightly. "So I was right in the mall the other day, hm? Girlfriend is it?"

Haku bit her lip annoyed with herself for her slip. "It's… not a big deal… is it?"

Meiko laughed and put an arm around Haku's shoulders. "It's not to me. She led them through the doors of the restaurant, holding one ajar as they entered together. "This wouldn't be the famous Hatsune Miku by any chance, would it?" Meiko asked slyly and Haku missed a step in surprise.

"How did-?!"

The short haired girl laughed again as she brushed at a few brown bangs over her eyes, letting Haku go as they were shown to a table. "Ooooh, good guess on my part! I was at Megurine Luka's last show by a chance invite from a friend. Fantastic seats too! Right in the front, right where I could see everything, including the sudden glamorous return from retirement of Hatsune Miku… and the amazing debut of a brand new idol Yowane Haku!"

Haku thought her cheeks were going to catch fire as she sat down, slipping off her parka and gloves and laying them on the seat beside her, trying to find anywhere at all to cast her eyes except for the other girl. She finally settled on her menu and muttered "It wasn't that big a deal…"

"Not that big a deal?!" Meiko exclaimed tossing her own coat over the back of her seat casually and plopping down unceremoniously. "Could you not see the entire crowd collectively losing it's mind?!"

"Not… not really. The lights were very bright…" Haku mumbled and picked up her water glass as the hostess set them down to have something to hide her face behind.

Meiko blinked then laughed. "I guess it is pretty bright in the limelight, huh? Well it was insane. My friend is kinda slim and almost got knocked down a time or two. Luckily I have all this military training now!" She flexed her arms, which to Haku's eye really didn't look all that different from her own to be honest, though maybe the shirt sleeves hid it. "Anyway, you looked super natural up there with them, like really good. You truly looked like you belonged on stage as well as with the other idols, though to be honest I'd have pegged you dating Megurine-san before Hatsune-san." Haku choked on her water and Meiko's eyes widened. "Wait you ARE….?! AND Hatsune-san…?! NO WAY!"

Haku could have snarled at herself for her slips in composure, she'd gotten so good at her serene cloak of outer calmness, what happened to it?! She decided she must just still not be used to the fact that she had two girlfriends now; she was still giddy about it, that was all. Setting down her water and taking a deep breath she pulled her outer serenity over herself and felt more stable immediately, but that didn't make the fire on her cheeks go away immediately. "You're reading rather deeply into this…"

Once more however the damage had been done. "BOTH of them?!" Meiko exclaimed and then just laughed when Haku cast her red eyes about nervously and made a shushing gesture with her hands. At least she lowered her voice though, "Wow Haku! Makin' tracks, I'm impressed! Do they know? That you're seeing them both I mean?"

"Of course they do!" Haku retorted indignantly, then took another deep breath. "What kind of person do you take me for?"

Meiko's smile widened further and she held her hands up defensively. "I was just asking! Wow, so you're a threesome huh? And with two idols! That's crazy. Though I guess it's not that far fetched, since you're ALL idols right? Famous people do tend to flock together after all."

"I'm not famous." Haku muttered.

Meiko snorted. "You're kidding me right?" When Haku just stared at her blankly Meiko took out her phone and tapped a few buttons, an iPhone, Haku couldn't help but notice. "Have you looked yourself up since that night?" She turned her screen around so Haku could see and the snowy haired girl blinked in surprise. It was an internet search browser in which Meiko had simply typed 'Yowane Haku' and the top searches all headed articles posted in the last few weeks. " _Brand new idol Yowane Haku explodes onto the stage alongside Megurine Luka and Hatsune Miku", "Hatsune Miku makes grand return from retirement and brings rising starlet Yowane Haku with her", "Mysteriously exotic beauty Yowane Haku newest idol on the block", "Who is this snowy white haired angel that came out of nowhere?"_ The titles went on and on and all she could do was stare in dumbound silence. After a moment Meiko returned her phone to her pocket. "I'm surprised your girlfriends didn't tell you honestly, they were always the types to keep up on that sort of thing.

She was famous already?! Haku could hardly believe it. There was just no way, she'd only been in one show! Not even the whole thing, it had been Luka's show! She'd only been on stage for two dances! It must have just been because of name association, the fact that she'd appeared alongside the likes of two other super famous idols. That had to have been it. Still… there was a warm feeling in the pit of her stomach. Buried deep down beneath the embarrassment, the anxiety, the worry, the fear… there was a glimmer of… pride? Happiness? She wasn't really sure, this was a new moment for her. She'd never felt anything like this before. It felt… really good. She'd spent her whole life trapped in her own little box until Luka and Miku had saved her from her dreary existence, and now… now it felt like everyone wanted to see her, like the whole world wanted to know about her. She'd gone from a nobody to a somebody just like that… suddenly tears welled up in her eyes from the flood of emotion and she had to bury her face in her water glass to hide it, but she managed not to cry outright.

Meiko seemed intent on her menu and after a few moments composing herself Haku managed to look hers over as well. When the server came they both ordered sandwiches, simple food from a simple place, but right then Haku didn't mind the simplicity. When the waitress left Haku opened her mouth before Meiko could say anything. Not wanting to talk about herself anymore she asked, "So how have things been going for you, Meiko? Is your training in the police academy going well?"

Meiko tilted her head and a curious sort of look came over her face, one Haku couldn't quite place. She stared at the snowy haired girl for a long few moments before finally smiling. "'Unexpectedly' would be the word for it. Things sure seem to have a way of turning out differently than you plan sometimes don't they?"

Haku blinked. "What things?"

Meiko shrugged and took a sip of her water in an overly nonchalant manner before replying. "Just things. You wake up one morning thinking you know what the day will bring, then you go to sleep that night after a whole different set of events than you thought. Sometimes it's like you're a secret agent in your own life."

Secret agent in your own life…? Haku blinked, what was that supposed to mean? She tilted her head curiously. "Then your training isn't going so well?"

"Oh no, it's going great. Just not how I expected that's all." She shrugged and leaned back away from the table a little bit to stretch. "Already got my first assignment and everything."

"Oh? What sort of assignment."

Meiko smiled and tilted her head. "Just reconnaissance, watching and observing, nothing super exciting. We all have to start somewhere though, right?"

"Right…" Haku murmured, and they lapsed into silence for a few minutes, each considering the other with curious looks. That odd feeling Haku had had after running into Meiko in the mall was back, that sense of something being not quite right nagging at the corners of her mind. Vocaloids were creatures of instinct and intuition, and hers was screaming at her now, but for the life of her she couldn't figure out what it was trying to tell her. Still, she liked Meiko well enough, and for all of the odd tension in the air neither of their smiles for the other was forced. After a time their sandwiches came and they munched while chatting idly, neither saying anything further of import, just the curiosities and gossip of two girls enjoying lunch. Haku's mind wandered to that giant bucket of ice cream Miku had been talking about, and she found herself wondering what her light blue haired girlfriend was up to, how her hunt and Luka's had gone, and what they were doing right then.

… … … … …

The garage door came down behind the Ferrari as Miku pulled in, parked, cut the engine, and hopped out of the four eighty-eight. The first thing she noticed was that Luka's motorcycle was still not back, but she knew from calls back and forth to HQ talking with the dispatchers that the pink haired beauty was on her way. They'd both ended up hunting a couple of souldrinkers apiece and she thought Luka was probably as ready for a relaxing evening cuddling as she was. It was late in the afternoon and she thought Haku's test should have been long over by then and she fully intended to round up her two girlfriends and go get that giant mountain of ice cream to share with them. She turned and began skipping out of the garage, her long light blue hair cascading behind her with the dark purple bow bouncing along in the same manner as Haku's usually did.

She didn't make it much further inside than the corridor off the entry hall before coming to a dead stop and tilting her head curiously. She could feel... something tugging at the edges of her consciousness, almost as though she could hear something just behind thought. She realized she'd been able to feel it for awhile now, an hour or more at least. Emotion and instinct buzzing through her she turned and let her feet carry her a different way than she'd intended to go and found herself making her way down toward the security door passed several bends in the halls. The chip in her ID badge beeped the security reader on the door to the director's wing open but she didn't turn down the hall it led into toward their offices, instead beeping open the elevator directly across the hallway from the door and going in. She reached her hand out to the button pad and watched as it pushed the button with the big number three on it seemingly all by itself. The elevator began to descend, and Miku hummed tunelessly to herself.

She knew where she was going now but she couldn't figure out why. She supposed when she got there she'd find out, and that was enough for her for the moment. It was an odd way to be summoned, like a phone call to the brain, and she couldn't see how it had been done, but she didn't think it mattered right then. After a time the elevator halted and the doors whooshed open with a ding and she stepped out into the rows of containment cells made out of the same sort of padded sonic absorbing material the testing chamber used. Or meshing, or whatever it was, she'd never been too clear on those details. Mechanical design had always been Luka's thing. Miku skipped down the rows and right up to Kiku's cell and smiled at her. With her red flowing hair loose and brushed out and her red-orange eyes half lidded as she sat on her bed Kiku looked more as though she were taking her ease in the comfort of her own room rather than sitting on a cot in a cell captured in her attack on the Vocaloid Compound when Haku had defeated her single handedly. Miku was still in awe of that moment, still couldn't believe how powerful Haku had become. Kiku considered Miku through her half closed gaze and for a time the two stared silently at each other, her on her bed confined within and Miku with her slight smile despite how dangerous this woman was. Three times now Miku had fought her and twice she had come away the worse for wear for all that she was one of the most powerful Vocaloids alive. She had only beaten her the other time because Luka had been there to Resonate with and they had surprised Kiku. She didn't like it, but lying to herself would have been no way to learn from it.

"What do you want?" Miku finally asked breaking the silence.

The very corners of Kiku's full red lips curved in the faintest of smiles almost a though to a private joke. Her low dark voice seemed to ring when she spoke. "The same as you."

Miku blinked. "The same as me? What the same as me?"

The dark woman's smile widened a tiny fraction. "Yowane Haku."

"What?" Miku rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Really? Like that's going to happen." The gall of the woman, like she'd really go in for that. Like either her or Luka would give up Haku to this… this whatever she was with her dark powers.

"Yowane-san is mine." The smile on Kiku's face didn't shift in the slightest and she seemed honestly amused now. "The fact that you all refuse to acknowledge it changes nothing."

"Haku-chin isn't yours, she's ours!" Miku waved at the air between them. "You can't have her."

"'Ours' is it?" Kiku mused as though seeing some joke that Miku was too stupid to get. "Are you so sure about that?"

"Of course I am!" Miku could feel some odd shadow of thoughts creeping into her mind; it was doubt she knew, but she didn't see why she should have cause to doubt now.

"Truly?" Kiku asked blatantly, her small half smile never wavering. "Do you honestly believe such a relationship can be healthy for all concerned?"

"What? Why not?" Miku's smile began to melt, sliding slowly from her face. "We're being super careful of each other's feelings, it'll be fine."

"And how long until such care grows wearing? How long until one of you grows to resent it, or finds herself neglected by the other two?"

Miku's eyes widened in shocked surprise, such a thought having never occurred to her before now. "That… that won't happen…!"

"You are so certain?" Kiku's amusement sounded slightly mocking now. "You who were so petty as to force your way between the romance of two others others until they had no choice but to accept you as a third wheel?"

"No! I didn't…!" Miku shouted in the beginning of a denial before biting her lip much harder than she meant to. That wasn't how it had been… had it…?

"How delightfully selfish of you, Hatsune-san." The mockery was thick now. "Did you give them any choice in the matter? Or did you just pout until they felt so sorry for you that they let you in on the circle? Did you really make them think they could refuse you?"

"No, you're wrong…! That's not it at all!" Miku put her hands up to her mouth as though to stifle a scream. She could feel her stomach trying to tie itself in knots, like a fist had hold of her insides and was twisting. "They both mean the world to me! They're my everything! We love each other!"

"Do you really?" The darkly beautiful woman asked, a hint of scorn tinging the mocking amusement. "I suppose the pink haired one might love you, I can't really say for sure but she must if she accepted this farce." Miku winced, the words as painful to her as any physical blow. "How could two gorgeous radiant creatures such as them really notice you when they have each other? What are you and your plain looks compared with the likes of such raw elegant beauty? How can you believe either of them really do love you? How can you think Yowane-san truly loves you?"

"She…" Miku couldn't stop a squeaky sob escaping her throat as she glanced down at her slim build. "She said she does…"

"She said she does." Kiku sneered. "And you believed her? Did you even stop to consider what that meant before rushing into this like a bull at a red flag?" Miku's lower lip quivered and tears began to run silently down her cheeks but she couldn't say anything so Kiku went on. "No of course you didn't. Allow me to enlighten you." She held up one finger ticking off the first point. "You are an idol, Hatsune-san. Your very presence can inspire desires in others and spark needs previously unaware of. Being with you would be like fulfilling a fantasy, not like a life's goal. She is starstruck." She held up a second finger. "Yowane-san has led a sheltered life up to now, cut off from friends and never having experienced normal interactions with others, including dating. Have you even taken her on a single date? Is it any wonder she would attach herself to the first person or two to come along and show her kindness?" Miku winced again and she could feel the tears flowing freely now at the harsh words but Kiku wasn't done, holding up a third finger. "Ultimately however, Hatsune-san, you saved her life. You rescued her from death and helped spare her a dreary shut in existence. How can you be so sure she truly loves you? To me, it seems like simple hero worship."

"Hero worship…" Miku clapped her hands more tightly to her mouth trying with all her might not to break down and cry in front of this woman.

"Of course it is!" The mocking tone was back again. "Yowane-san had never even known love before! She's never experienced anything outside in the real world until now! How could she possibly love you?! You're a lecher and are simply preying on her naivete in your selfishness!"

"No!" Miku shrieked stamping her foot on the floor in a tantrum. The tears fell ever more freely now but she didn't cry outright, she wouldn't, not in front of this… this witch! But everything she said was true… "NO!" She did shriek now, at her own doubts as much as at Kiku. "Nonononono! You're wrong! WRONG!" She spun around and ran. She felt like she couldn't breathe, she had to get away from the witch. But the dark woman's laughter followed her all the way back to the elevator. She dropped her badge and had to scramble to retrieve it before ramming the ID chip into the reader, but at last the doors whooshed open and she all but flung herself inside. As soon as the doors slid closed once more cutting her off from laughter and sight alike she let the wails out and began to hammer her fists on the back wall of the elevator, metallic clangs echoing all around inside the small metal box with each fistfall. Great heaving wails for the pain, for the cruelty, for the humility… for the truth...

Back in her cell, after Miku was gone, Kiku tapped a fingertip to her chin thoughtfully. That had been far too easy. She'd said similar things to Megurine-san. Well, their worries were probably similar, but borne from different insecurities. She couldn't help giggling at herself.


	19. Vocaloid Academy Chapter 19

The fifth floor skyway seemed to yawn open in a vast stretch before her as Haku sat watching the people moving past on the lower levels below. This mall was so big it didn't have one centralized area for any particular thing, such as a food court. There was one giant food area and several smaller ones scattered all over, so when they'd gotten their massive tub of ice cream they'd found a spot with a nice view and sat to enjoy it together. At least, that had been the idea at any rate. The sight was certainly pretty at least. The upper levels were basically extra wide walkways around the outer circumference of the mall providing access to the higher floor store fronts while the middle parts of the upper floors were missing to provide view. From her vantage point at their table Haku could see people on every floor all the way to the ground level as well as the store fronts. Lights and art sculptures and streamers and massive signs dangled out in the otherwise unoccupied space between floors, much of it seeming to float in mid air suspended by thin metal wires that were hard to see at a distance. There was an ice skating rink all the way at the bottom off to one side of the ground floor with some sort of class in progress, and there was a children's play area beside that with toys and playsets and climbing equipment sectioned off by a low wall. This mall was much larger than the one near the Vocaloid Compound but it was close to the hospital that Hojoto-san had booked them for a PR appearance at so they had come here on the way because Miku had still been intent on the ice cream.

The tub itself want really a bucket, that's just how Haku thought of it. It was more like a massive bowl with huge scoops of several flavors and was loaded down with every kind of topping imaginable, from sprinkles and chocolate chips to bits of waffle pushed into the sides and even strawberry pocky sticks stuck in it. She could scarcely believe how someone could even order such a gigantic confection let alone eat it, but she supposed the point was to share it, which was certainly what they'd intended to do with it, but… she looked across the table at her two girlfriends and the far away sad looks in their eyes as they stared at the thing. Whatever morose mood had taken ahold of Luka a few days ago had Miku firmly in it's grasp now too and neither of them would talk about it. They both would just mutter that they had to sort things out in their heads first and would talk about it later. Haku burned to know what was bothering them but didn't want to push them for fear of putting pressure on their fledgling relationship.

Even the massive pile of ice cream and sweets on the table had failed to lift their spirits, even Miku who was so far the only one to touch it and had only taken one piece of pocky. She could see puddles forming at the edges of the bowl where the ice cream had started to melt as they'd all just sat at the table in silence. This trip to the biggest mall in the region had been as much about shopping therapy as it had been about diversion, and she'd even snuck off into a gourmet chocolate shop while the other two had been in the bathroom and bought a big box of Luka's favorite expensive brand of chocolate truffles. The pink haired beauty had been having cravings for them a lot lately and Miku really liked these kind too. She'd even gotten a card to put inside the box in which she'd written to them how much she loved them both, that she wanted them to always know that whenever possible they came first to her. The box with the card in it seemed redundant with the ice cream now though so she'd decided to wait, leaving the truffles in the shopping bag… Haku let her head hang dejectedly as the atmosphere seemed so heavy between them it was like a physical weight pressing against her. She must have done something wrong, that had to be it. She didn't know what it was, it has to have been an accident, but she was sure she'd done something to upset them now. As she looked down she caught sight of her white hair puddled in her lap where she'd pulled it around to keep from letting it brush against the floor behind her chair. Who knew how often they mopped this floor, but what struck her was the snowy color. It had been nearly three months now and she still wasn't completely used to it yet.

"What's the matter Haku-chin?" Came Luka's crystalline voice, and Haku looked up.

"Hm? Uhm. Nothing…" Haku mumbled.

"You haven't touched the ice cream." The idol pointed out.

"Neither have you." Haku replied.

Luka smiled at her, but it was a sad smile, the smile of someone trying to put a good face on a situation eating away at them inside. "True…"

"Well someone better start eating it!" Miku waved a spoon in the air. She hadn't touched her side of it either. "It's going to melt all over!" Even the pretty light blue haired girl's bubbliness was somewhat muted today. After a moment she sighed and threw her spoon down on the table with a clatter. "Maybe we should just go…"

They sat there for another moment or two then as one they scooted their chairs back and stood up from the table, Miku picking up her litter black handbad she'd brought today and Haku retrieving the truffles still in the chocolate shop bag. Turning around they spotted a group of preteens walking by, two girls and a boy intent on whatever conversation they were having, and they stopped with wide round eyes as the three girls. Miku's light blue twintails were knotted on top of her head in Chinese style buns before falling down to either side like they usually did, framing her in her grey shirt and black skirt with teal trimming. Her black leg warmers were thicker than usual but matched regardless, it was winter outside after all. Luka was wearing black leg warmers as well along with her all black with gold trim and design outfit which Haku could never quite be sure whether it was a one piece flowing dress or a two piece shirt and swirling skirt, but she had a black and gold headband holding back her unbound flowing pink hair. What surprised Haku was the preteens seemed just as intent in her as they did the two idols with her. _The other two idols_ … she had to remind herself, still not used to that any more than she was to the attention she got from it now. All she was wearing was a simple white shirt and her best black pants, though her bow today had diaphanous purple and silver glittery plastic edges that lined up when tied around her hair to keep it back in her usual simple ponytail so that it looked like a butterfly on the back of her neck.

One of the girls pointed, the shorter of the two and maybe a year younger than the others. "Oh my god! It's Megurine Luka and Hatsune Miku!" She paused only a second and moved her pointer finger toward Haku. "And... their new friend!" She added, apparently having forgotten her name.

"Yowane Haku." The other girl with her said as she batted at the first girl's hand. "Put your hand down, pointing is rude!" She turned to the three idols and folded her hands in front of herself and gave a bow. "I'm so sorry for my sister, Megurine-san, Hatsune-san, Yowane-san. We're just such big fans of yours! I'm Orona Kiru, it's a pleasure to meet you!" She smiled shyly but looked at them eagerly.

"I'm Orona Kiri!" The younger girl threw her fist in the air in a way that made Haku think of Miku and she had to suppress a giggle. "We were unable to attend your recent concert, but we were at the festival with the drums!" The two sisters looked to the boy who was staring with huge round eyes at the three beautiful idols and it suddenly became painfully and awkwardly apparent that he was having the sort of reaction to the beautiful girls that any fourteen year old boy might have. Haku blushed slightly and averted her gaze feeling her skin crawl. Miku made a face and Luka rolled her eyes though she had the barest hint of an amused smile. Kiri elbowed the boy in the ribs rather roughly and he clutched his side and began spluttering. "This lout is our brother Kiro."

"It's nice to meet you all." Luka said diplomatically. She smiled and turned slightly sideways to gesture at the table. "Actually, if it's not too much to impose upon you, we were just about to leave but we have this ice cream." The preteens' eyes all went wide at the sight of the massive treat. "We ordered it but we didn't have time to actually eat it so it's completely untouched. If you'd like it you three can have it."

"Wow!" Kiru blinked at the confection.

"Truly?! We can really have it?!" Kiri gasped.

"We…" The boy cleared his throat and cast an embarrassed look at the girls all around him. "We aren't supposed to be taking treats from strangers."

"What?!" Kiri scoffed. "Are you serious?! They aren't strangers! They're idols!"

"They said they haven't touched it…" Kiri licked her lips eyeing the massive mound of ice cream.

"Well if you don't want it I guess it can't be helped." Miku said with a sigh as though it were a big deal. "I guess we'll just had to throw it away." She turned and reached for the bowl but three cries of protest made her freeze in mid reach and turn a surprised look around. "Oh? Does that mean you'll take it after all?"

Kiro nodded. "Well if my sisters are so insistent then I guess it can't be helped." He said pretending like he wasn't all that interested for himself, but he eyed the huge bowl as much as the other two.

"Fantastic! Thank you so much, it really would have been a shame to waste it." Luka smiled like they were doing her a huge favor.

"You'd better dig in, it's starting to melt." Miku said, and the three preteens immediately took the recently vacated seats and lifted the still unused spoons with cries of thanks over their shoulders for the idols.

"I can't wait to tell my friends at school about this! They'll never believe it!" Kiri exalted to the other two as the idols turned to leave.

Walking away from their previous table the somber silence descended on them once more as they made their way toward the escalators that would take them to the lower floors of the Stellar Palace. As they walked they passed shops of every kind; clothes stores, pop culture boutiques, music shops, electronics outlets, everything. Haku was only watching with half her attention walking slightly behind the other two girls as she brooded trying to figure out what she'd done wrong, but then she stopped suddenly outside of an instrument store display window. Her red eyes went wide as she looked at all the shiny music instruments, everything from symphonic horns all the way to modern guitars were visible through the front of the store and she felt a tugging at her emotions as she looked on. Both of her girlfriends could play multiple instruments, infact Miku could play basically every kind that existed as far as Haku knew. She couldn't help but wondering at her lack suddenly as she stared through the window. The other two idols didn't take long to notice her absence and turned curious at her halt and came back to her, following her gaze into the instrument store. "What is it, Haku-chin?" Luka asked curiously.

Abruptly Haku turned and looked from one of them intently to the other, red eyes meeting green then blue. "Will you both teach me to play an instrument?"

They blinked at her and Miku tilted her head. "That's sort of a sudden request isn't it?"

"Which instrument?" Luka wanted to know.

Haku shook her head. "Any instrument, something you both know and can both teach me? Please?"

They turned their heads to look at each other for a moment, trading a curious gaze before looking back to her once more. "Alright, Haku-chin. Shall we go in and pick something out?" Luka's crystalline voice sounded almost pleased, and Haku knew in that moment she was onto something that would help the three of them work things out. She opened her mouth to respond but a sudden scream pierced the air echoing up from a lower floor, the shriek of a child, the kind when play suddenly turns to terror.

Haku was instantly at the rail of the fifth floor looking down but no faster than were Luka and Miku. They craned their necks this way and that and it was Miku who spotted the little boy first, pointing down to the ground floor at a kid no more than six years old running from an adult chasing him. It might have looked like a parent trying to catch their child, except this adult had pale skin and all black orbs for eyes. They would be passing directly below her in mere moments, there was no time to find an escalator and make their way down, the boy would be dead by then. But the speed they were moving looked just right, the timing felt absolutely perfect. Haku didn't hesitate, dropping the chocolate bag and reaching out with one hand to grab the banister she levered herself up and over in one smooth motion. She heard her girlfriends both shout her name in shocked surprise but she was already falling.

Freefall turned out to be an oddly surreal feeling, all the more so because time did that thing it had done for her during her fight with Kiku where evening seemed to slow down as though the world had been put on slow motion. She could see everyone walking around her on the walkways like a stop motion frame lag, heads coming around to gape at her and arms coming up to point. The lower floors of the mall moving passed her seemed to drift by lazily even as the air seemed to roar in her ears as it wooshed by at a crawl. Shouts of alarm reached her, she thought she could hear Miku and Luka above her screaming in horror but even that was drowned out among the other shouts as she moved too far away down the busy mall. Numbers flashed through her mind, calculating her descent. She was slightly heavier than the average woman owing to her ample chest and few centimeters taller height than most other girls. An extra couple of kilograms, very little wind resistance in the mall, five floor drop of perhaps three and a half or four meters per floor… she didn't think she'd quite reach terminal velocity, and the timing was important. She angled herself forward and down, white hair streaming up behind her like a falling banner. She could have counted the number of people on each floor she passed, could have filled in the sudoku a man was doing on the third story had she been close enough, could have picked up the rice crackers she saw someone in the act of dropping before they scattered across the ground.

Time was hers.

Her sonic wave ripped out from her body as she let a low musical note out and down right as she was passing the second floor into the ground level, just as the little boy had moved by her and the souldrinker was under her. Sound moved so much faster than her freefall did and with her proximity to the creature the pure white light of her sonic energy seemed to her to engulf the world for a brief moment just before impact. She landed hard directly atop the creature but she knew her sonic boom had killed it instantly before her body ever made contact. That same energy wave, the frequency so far beyond normal human perception ranges, continued to emit from her body for just a fraction of an instant longer serving to rebound against the floor and cushion her fall, her own energies cradling her as if she'd landed in a net or air bag. Time seemed to resume all at once and she flopped over onto the hard floor rather than lay on the corpse of the souldrinker. The thing made her shin crawl even dead and she found she preferred the hard floor to it, laying with her arms and legs splayed out on the spiderwebbed tile. It seemed her energy wave had again been far stronger than she'd meant for it to be. She had little control of her newfound power.

People were still screaming all around her and beginning to rush every which way. A woman ran passed and caught the fleeing boy up and clutched him to her chest, a mother finding her child okay. Several people were shouting for security, someone yelled something about an ambulance, still more were hollering to know if the girl who fell off the upper catwalk was okay. Haku wasn't sure entirely what to do now. She had reacted on instinct, pure intuition. She'd seen the danger, had known she could deal with it, and had done so before it was too late. Now that it was over however several things became painfully clear, first and foremost being just how public of a display she had put on. While no one could have seen her sonic abilities on frequencies far beyond normal human perception ranges, there was no denying the fact that she had just plummeted down a five story drop and there was not a scratch or bruise on her. She lay there on the floor gazing up at the ceiling far over head completely at a loss as to what should happen next when suddenly there was a man kneeling over her shaking her shoulder.

"Miss?! Miss! Are you okay!"

Haku blinked her red eyes and shifted her head to the side to look up at the man. He was wearing a mall security outfit and seemed like he was trying do his job. The area right around her had been cleared by men in uniforms and people were being herded back. That was fast, had she blacked out and without realizing? She didn't think so; she must have just been lost in thought longer than she'd meant to be. She opened her mouth to say something but at that moment there was a commotion behind him and she craned her neck to see around his side. Another couple of men in security uniforms were holding back people from the crowd trying to get a look at the scene. While she'd been laying there they had cleared the area of people and were trying to restore order, but Miku and Luka were having none of their brusqueness.

"Stay back please, the situation is under control."

"Let me through, she's my girlfriend!" Luka's crystalline voice rang out over the crowd, so assertive, so commanding, that the security guard blinked in surprise at both the tone as well as the declaration before stepping back. Luka and Miku rushed forward and dropped to their knees beside her. "Haku-chin! You're alive!" Relief flooded her beautiful face.

Miku bit her lower lip as the emotion on her face changed from despair to relief as well. "Haku-chin, I'm so glad…" They had honestly thought…? Haku opened her mouth then let it close again, and they both leaned in closer to hear better. "What?"

"I don't know how to get out of this." She whispered, and their eyes went wide as they understood why she was laying there prone.

Standing up Luka put her in charge voice back on as she addressed the guards who had been trying to listen I to what Haku had said. "I need to get her to the hospital and I don't want to wait for an ambulance. I'll take her now if you can handle the body." She gestured at the souldrinker which had been mangled so badly by the impact it's face wasn't really recognizable.

The one earlier guard who had yielded to Luka once already did so again without hesitation but the first guard shook his head. "I'm sorry miss but we have processes which must be followed. The police will have to be informed and your… Friend… will have to be questioned if she's okay after her accident."

Something about the guard's tone when he said "friend" rubbed Haku the wrong way and she felt her hackles rising at the disrespect, and apparently Luka and Miku felt it too because their faces darkened and Luka drew herself up more rigidly. She wasn't taller than any of the men around her but right then her presence towered above everyone else's there. "Do you know who I am?"

"You're an idol." The guard said though he muttered after that clearly failing to come up with a name.

"I am Megurine Luka." Even if he didn't know the idol before him most people knew the Megurine family name and the guard's eyes widened in shock. Luka was sole heiress to a vast business empire, and though she rarely talked about it or even acknowledged it the fact remained that her name opened doors closed to most people. "I am taking my _girlfriend_ to the hospital." She emphasized the word to offset the man's previous disposition, her voice now hard as diamonds. "Do whatever you have to do for your job of course and I would not try to stop you in it, but you cannot stop me either. If you wish to involve the police I will provide you with the phone number to my team of lawyers to give to them and they can sort this out later."

Haku thought the man's eyes might bulge out of his face but he swallowed and nodded. "V-Very well, Megurine-san. I will take the number. Just for record keeping purposes you understand."

"Of course." Luka said sliding a business card out of a fold in her skirt that concealed a pocket and handing it over. "Please let my people know if there's anything else." She said, her crystal voice carrying an obvious dismissive tone. With that she turned back to the other girls and Miku bent to help Haku to her feet, juggling both her handbag as well as the chocolate shop bag she'd apparently grabbed up from where Haku had dropped it before vaulting the fifth floor rail. She didn't need the help but she took it anyway for appearance sake and the three of them made their way out of the circle of onlookers toward the side of the mall garage access closest to where they had parked. The second they rounded a corner out of earshot Miku handed Haku's chocolate bag over to her and pulled her phone out of her little black handbag, tapped it a few times, then put it to her ear.

"Daddy, we had an… incident at the mall. Yes. I mean it's a mall, so yeah there were witnesses. No, no nothing like that. Luka-chin handled it for the most part, but you may want to send someone to retrieve the thing, and Director Yumena might get a phone call from the police." A pause then her green eyes went wide. "What?! No! No we're leaving now. Uh huh. Ok. We'll report in when we get back from our showing at the hospital. What? Oh, the Stellar Palace. Yeah. Okay. Bye." She hung up and slid her phone back into her handbag and when she saw the other two casting concerned looks her way she sighed made a face. "He thought we got arrested."

Haku flushed and looked away and Luka rolled her eyes. "Oh please, they don't arrest people for falling off of rails."

"She didn't fall though…" Miku muttered and Haku turned her head back around, her red eyes wide. Miku stared at her as they exited the mall into the parking garage. "Well you didn't. You jumped."

"I was trying to save that boy…" Haku mumbled.

"You couldn't have taken the stairs?" Miku demanded. "I thought you…!" She flushed now too. "I thought…" She couldn't bring herself to say it.

Haku glared bitterly and filled in the rest for her. "You honestly thought I was trying to hurt myself?" How could Miku think such a thing?! "Really?"

"Well! We've all been so upset the last few days I just worried-"

"No, not 'we', Miku-chin, 'you.'" Haku thought her insides were freezing over, she felt numb. "Both of you! You both have been broody and not talking to me and I don't know what I did wrong! How can I fix it if you won't talk to me, if you won't tell me what I did?!"

She hadn't meant to shout but she realized her silvery voice was echoing off the concrete garage floor and ceiling. She bit her lower lip and turned her head away again. They were quiet for a moment as they came around a wall and moved down a final row to the Ferrari, then Luka's crystal voice floated back. "It was an irrational worry in the heat of the moment, Haku-chin. We shouldn't have thought it."

We. So Luka had thought the same thing. It wasn't really an apology, but… she couldn't make herself respond to that and Miku chimed in though she still sounded annoyed. "Haku-chin what you did… I mean you're so powerful and it was a fantastic display, but we were in public. You know the rules! We're not supposed to do anything that could get us caught!" She beeped the Ferrari unblocked, pulled the passenger door up, and practically flung herself inside as Luka moved around to the driver's side. It was the pink haired beauty's turn to drive so Haku got in behind Miku after stowing the truffles in the rear compartment and shut the door.

Haku glared out her window at nothing as Luka started the engine with a roar and backed it out of the parking spot. "There wasn't time to find stairs," she said. "The souldrinker wound have caught that boy before I- before any of us could have gotten down there."

"But my dad's rules-"

"Would have gotten a little boy killed today!" Haku snapped turning an angry stare on the light blue haired girl next to her, but Miku glared back."Should I have just let a child die? Is that what you're saying?"

"What?! No! That's not what I meant!" Miku threw her hands up in the air in front of her in exasperation which looked a little silly since they were crammed three people into a two seater and she didn't really have the room for it squished into the middle like she was.

"She's just saying the rules exist for a reason, Haku-chin, and that sometimes the risk can outweigh the cost." Luka put in as she turned out of the garage onto the main road. "It's just something to think about, that's all."

Haku blinked at her incredulously. She couldn't believe her ears "Then you're on her side?!"

"I'm not on a side," Luka said. "I'm just trying to help everyone see both points of view."

"Then you both think the little boy should have died? For what? What greater good could have been served by his death?" Haku demanded. Anger was coursing through her and she couldn't stem the tide. She usually didn't get like this but after days of them brooding at her for something they wouldn't tell her about, and now this… it was too much.

"You don't know for sure he would have died." Miku said. "He might have gotten away or hidden or something."

"There isn't a shadow of a doubt in my mind what would have happened." Haku retorted. "Besides, even if he had gotten away, the souldrinker would have just picked another target."

"By which time we might have gotten down there." Luka said. "Haku-chin, no one is saying you didn't do a good thing, it's just the method and the cost of it."

"What cost?"

"Aside from the risk of exposing ourselves? Aside from the fact that if we get found out and shut down then that one boy would be the last person we ever saved because there would no longer be anyone to fight the souldrinkers?" Miku retorted back. "You're just luck they thought you fell on accident from like the second floor!"

"I had to invoke my name to get us out of that." Luka said with a frown.

"Why is that bad?" Haku didn't understand.

Miku started at her. "You really have no idea what it's like being famous do you?"

Haku just shook her head. "No, how could I? I've never been famous before."

"Well you are now, you need to act like it." Miku replied sourly.

"I'm only famous by association with you two, because I'm in your shadow." Haku's silvery voice rang with bitterness.

"I hate invoking my name," Luka interjected before things got even more heated, "Because every time a famous person does that it colors their image, makes the public see them as snotty or stuck up or whatever the circumstance dictated. Positive imagery is built up over months or years, but negative imagery only takes one slip or one accident to tear it all down. I try to avoid using my name because if I do it the wrong way the very least I can expect is media backlash."

"And you declared her your girlfriend." Miku said softly.

"Yes… I thought she was hurt and that they wouldn't let me through to her side..." Luka said and they all fell silent as that. All three of them knew what that could mean. Being openly gay or in an openly gay relationship was enough, but being a public figure and being gay invited a whole host of problems above and beyond anything else. Coming out of the closet had ruined many famous peoples careers in recent history, but then it had also helped some too. Luka declaring herself having a girlfriend loudly and in public then moments later invoking her name… this would be all over the internet within the hour, and there was no real way to be sure how that would work out. It would all depends on her fan base now. It was a sobering thought, and Haku waa suddenly hit with the realization that her actions today may be the direct cause that could end Luka's career. The pink haired beauty didn't say as much, but it was obvious they were all thinking it. Haku felt tears sting her eyes but she was still too mad to relent so she turned to stare out the window, watching buildings roll by and pavement with patches of snow here and there blurr passed without really seeing them as thoughts of lesbianism in the public eye as well as moral connotations versus acting in the greater good swirled through her mind.

They rode the rest of the way to Teishinkai Hospital in silence, each girl preoccupied with her own thoughts and upsets. Haku couldn't stop wondering what she'd done wrong, why they were so mad at her, and how she could fix it. These two beautiful women meant the entire world to her and she couldn't stand that they are upset with her. She had to figure this out, she had to! She'd never been the kind of person that could hold on to anger and this was no exception, the heat giving way to general upset in the space of a few minutes. Silently she began weeping as she gazed out the window, clenching her tummy and constricting her throat to keep from making much noise, balling her fists and locking her shoulders to try not to shake. She didn't want them seeing her cry right then for some reason but the emotions were too much to bottle up entirely and she leaned her forehead against the window and wept silently. She barely noticed when Luka pulled the Ferrari into a parking spot outside the hospital and cut the engine, realizing too late that without the noise of the car and the road to down out her sniffles that her efforts at keeping quiet wouldn't be enough. She started wiping at her eyes furiously but then felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Haku-chin…" Miku's chime like voice was pitched low and gentle.

"What?" Haku sniffled but didn't turn around, continuing to wipe at her eyes.

"Haku-chin, look at me." For a moment she didn't move, not sure if she even wanted to, then Miku's voice softened even further. "Please?" Slowly Haku turned around to find both of the other two girls looking at her intently. Neither of their eyes were so much as damp, which didn't seem fair to her for some reason. She didn't say anything, just waited. Miku's eyes grew tight at the corners the way they did when she was upset and trying not to show it but Haku knew the signs. Luka just had that sad look on her beautiful face again. After a minute of just staring at each other Miku leaned forward and gently wrapped her arms around Haku's shoulders, hugging her tightly. Haku stiffened for a moment but then melted into the hug, sliding her arms around the smaller girl's waist. A few fresh tears leaked out of the corners of her eyes but she managed to keep from sniffling again. "I'm sorry." Miku started to apologize, but Haku shook her head.

"Don't." She said. Miku stiffened in her arms and Haku buried her face in the other girl's neck. "The mall… was an accident, we can discuss it more later…" She felt Miku give a slow grudging nod. "For the rest…" Haku sighed and gave a squeeze to Miku's middle. "Don't apologize until I know what you're apologizing for. I don't understand what I did wrong, what I did to upset you both, but until you can tell me about it… well… it's hard to accept an apology when I don't know what it's for."

There was a silent pause in the car then Miku squeezed her back. "Okay. We'll talk later alright? After we're done here?"

Haku nodded and they hugged tighter for a minute before finally letting go and they all got out of the four eighty-eight. Miku grumbled about leg cramps from the middle spot and how they seriously needed a sexy sports car with a backseat. While she was grumbling Haku moved around to Luka and wrapped her arms around the pink haired beauty who blinked at her curiously. "What is it Haku-chin?"

She looked up at her idol for a moment before squeezing her eyes shut unable to bear the shame of it and practically whimpered, "I'm sorry… if I damaged your career… I'm so sorry… I was just trying to save the little kid…"

If Haku had thought her idol looked sad these past few days it was nothing compared with the sorrow that welled up in Luka's blue eyes now. She was silent for a time before at last making a reply, reaching up to brush at the tears on Haku's cheeks with the tips of her fingers. "We'll figure it out." She said gently. As one they all turned to head into the hospital, their breaths visible clouds in the cold winter air. None of them were happy and they each knew the others were as upset as she was, but there didn't seem anything to be done about it right then. Haku couldn't help but notice that Luka hasn't said "It's okay", hadn't actually accepted her apology, and it made her want to start crying all over again. Of course it wasn't okay, how could it be?

Once they'd made themselves known at the front desk they were taken to an elevator which they rode up a few floors then shown to a ward that looked rather temporary to Haku with everything on wheels. Beds, tables, equipment stands, everything was designed for portability and seemed as though they had cleared a floor section just to wheel up those kids who were well enough for it. She could see rows of beds with excited faces positioned to watch for their entrance. Hojoto Hime was waiting for them as they drew up to the ward's entrance and she smiled at them warmly. It was time to go to work, Haku thought, and very purposefully pulled her outer serenity around herself, feeling very much like she was cloaking herself from the world.

Hime held her arms up toward them. "There's my little starlets! Not a moment too soon either, these kids are about to burst with anticipation! One of you world be enough, but all three of you?! And one of you brand new and the other making the biggest return from retirement the industry has ever seen?!" She let out a little titter of glee.

"Hello Hojoto-san, it's good to see you." Luka said as their manager lowered her arms. "What's the plan for this outing?"

"Well officially it's just a meet and greet for publicity's sake, no performing required…" she trailed off with a twinkle of amusement in her eye.

Miku giggled and bent to glance through the glass of the doors, her light blue twintails swaying behind her. "Are there speakers in there? We'll need music."

Hojoto laughed and clapped her hands together. "I knew you girls wouldn't let me down!" She turned toward one of the orderlies she'd been speaking to when they came up and very shortly people were scurrying to find equipment. An IT guy had to be called to come help with the network and the speakers and it took him nearly fifteen minutes to show up. Haku watched in silence as people moved to and fro, an her gaze landed on a man and a woman in medical scrubs watching the three of them from down the hall as their preparations were seen to. No… watching Miku specifically. Watching Miku and pointing and gesturing occasionally while conversing in low but intense whispers. She watched them for several minutes while the others were setting up and they kept at it the entire time. What was going on…? This wasn't the idle musings of seeing a famous person; they weren't looking at Luka at all, and the expressions on their faces weren't joyous, they were… Haunted was probably the closest word she could think of. What was going on? She had half a mind to scoot closer and try to eavesdrop but someone saying her name brought her attention back around to what they were there for.

"Haku-chin?"

"Ha?" Haku turned to the three women facing her.

"We're about ready and we were discussing our entrance." Luka said. "Do you want to go in first?"

Haku tilted her head a bit curiously. "What's the song?"

Miku held her phone up connected to the tech's laptop on a rolling medical tray that looked like it was hooked in to the ward's PA system. "It's whatever we want."

"Well… this is Luka-chin's event right? Shouldn't we support her?" Haku asked.

"This is for all three of you as a group," Hime said. "For the Vocaloids."

"Oh…" Haku considered it while eyeing the door. "It's wide enough for the three of us to go in at the same time. Why don't we just pick something with a nice beat and break in different directions? Ikkitousen maybe?"

Luka blinked at that. "Do you know the steps to that one?"

Haku shook her head, "No but we're not doing the actual routine are we? There's no stage, not enough room. We'll just be improvising our way through the ward."

Miku smiled and nodded, "Good points. I'll get it ready." She tapped her phone a few times to bring the song up online then nodded. "It should be ready, and I set it to move in to Pomp and Circumstance right after."

Hime blinked. "Isn't that an American school tune?"

Miku shook her head. "No this is a different version, same name."

They gathered next to the door and positioned themselves in a starting pose ready to move down the rows of beds in different directions as soon as they were inside. One of the older preteens nearest the doors saw them through the window and pointed and shouted excitedly and all conversation in the ward cut off as every eye turned to look. The song was started, the beat boomed out over the loudspeakers, and Hime hit the wheelchair access button so the doors swung open on their own to reveal the three idols. Haku supposed she had to get used to thinking of herself that way now, assuming her actions today hadn't ruined that. Now was definitely not the time for such thoughts however and as the melody kicked in and with the beat they moved out of their poses into forward moving dance steps and the kids and teens all began to cheer.

Haku focused on keeping time with Luka and Miku as the other two girls stepped and pivoted and weaved their way through the beds. The other two knew all the words to both songs but Haku didn't know them all so she sang what she could along with them and did her best to lip sync to the speakers the rest of the time. There was no specific dance number to follow when improvising but by the instincts that drove them as Vocaloids they still fell into a synchronized sort of rhythm with each other. The timing was flawless and the kids all cheered as the three of them moved the length of the ward. By the time the first song ended they had danced their way the entire length down and part way back, passing beds they had already danced by but when they reached the end they shuffled, shifting sides around so when they started back they were each taking a path one of the others had taken the first time. The second song took them back to the doors they had started beside where they shuffled again, seamlessly ducking and weaving passed each other so as to keep the rhythm in time, and by the end of the second song they were in the middle of the ward with all eyes on them, striking a pose as everyone present clapped and cheered including several orderlies, nurses, and a doctor or two who had stopped to watch. It was different than dancing for a live crowd with the lights in your eyes so you could barely see; in this sort of setting all eyes were on you and Haku felt like she could feel every last gaze that lingered on her, and she'd thought she'd hate it, thought she'd feel exposed by it, but in fact she felt… free. She felt like she could be herself, be who she wanted to be, and they would cheer her for it.

With the impromptu dance concluded they broke into the actual meet and greet, circulating amongst the the youths present, meeting them, getting their names, learning a little about them, sometimes signing something. Almost every kid present had a CD for one of the idols to autograph, but they were all either Luka or Miku's as Haku hadn't been an idol long enough to produce any albums. What really surprised her however was the number of them that had large headshot sized photos of her, all clearly copied and printed off from what had to be a picture taken at Hibikase on her debut night with her name printed on them, "Yowane Haku" in big letters. She suspected Hime's hand in this but every time she glanced at her their manager was just watching them work and smiling happily.

After about an hour had gone by she found herself at the bedside of one boy of about twelve years old who wanted his arm cast signed by all three of them, shifting sideways to hold it up. Haku blinked not sure why someone would want a cast signed that was just going to get old and smelly after it came off but she smiled at him anyway and bent to write her name on it. That was when she heard the people behind her, near the doors the girls had come in, talking in low but fervent voices. "See? I told you it's her. Look for yourself, Hatsune Miku right there."

"Yeah? What about it?" The voices were quiet enough that Haku didn't think anyone would have heard more than a pace or two away except that all the doors to the ward were now open acting almost like a sort of sound funnel. The doors sat in a recessed frame you couldn't see around unless you came all the way forward and they hadn't, standing a bit back. Haku could only see them when she looked slightly sideways bent over the cast with the marker in her hand because of the angle.

"What do you mean what about it?" The first guy asked, the same guy from down the hall earlier that had been watching Miku with the odd look on his face. The woman he'd been talking to was with him, as were two other guys now. "She's right there, and she's alive!"

"Oh brilliant deduction." One of the other guys rolled his eyes. "Of course she's alive! She didn't die from that accident, all the papers said so."

"No way." The first guy said. "No, she was dead, I was there."

Haku felt as though every vein in her body turned to ice all at once and she looked up at the boy. "Let me go get the others for you." He nodded eagerly and she moved off down the ward to find Miku and Luka standing at adjacent beds talking to a couple of little kids. "Can I borrow you two for a moment? So we can all, uhm, sign a cast?"

They glanced back at her and nodded and Luka tilted her head a bit. "Sure Haku-chin, just give us a minute to finish up here and-"

Haku cut her off gently but firmly, a warning note in her silvery voice. "No, I really think we should do the cast. Now."

Her two girlfriends traded concerned looks but seemed to catch the tone. They nodded and politely excused themselves from the kids they had been talking to, then followed Haku back over to the boy with the cast. He was absolutely delighted to have all three of them at his bedside and Haku gestured wordlessly at the cast. Miku took up the marker and bent over the cast to write but they could all three already hear the low voices around the corner.

"I'm telling you I saw what I saw!" The first guy was saying. "And I wasn't the only one! Tell them!"

There was a slight hesitation before the woman's voice came to them. "He's… he's right… I saw her… Hatsune Miku's body was… was pretty badly mangled when they brought her in. She wasn't breathing or anything, had no pulse, vitals were all zero."

Miku stood up abruptly with the marker gripped so tightly in her hand that her knuckles were white. Haku had to pry it out of her grasp to hand it up Luka, whose face was as drained of color as Miku's clenched fists, but the pink haired beauty leaned down to write on the cast, her gaze flickering briefly around the corner at the nurses talking. One of the other men snorted. "People have been technically dead and brought back before."

"She was dead on arrival" The vehement guy argued. "Crushed by that stage! She would have been gone far longer than could have been possible to revive her!"

"I heard of one case where a man was dead for over an hour before being brought back. It could happen."

"Isn't Ijinashi nearly a thirty minute drive from here in light traffic?" The woman's voice again. "An ambulance would have made it in fifteen or twenty."

"The paramedics said she was dead at the scene, and the doctors worked on her for over an hour here." The first man said. "I'm telling you there's no way! Haven't you seen the pictures in our files?!"

"Didn't her parents claim her body?"

"Yeah shortly after the doctors here gave up."

Abruptly Miku turned and walked away. Luka straightened from the cast and hurried after her. Haku noticed neither if them had finished their names, so before the boy could notice she grabbed the marker and quickly added the missing "ku" and "ka" then smiled at the kid before running after the other two. She found them out in the hallway, Miku staring out a window and Luka behind her with a hand on her shoulder. When she walked up Miku spoke without looking around, an odd bone chilling tone in her chime like voice. "That article you found the other day, Haku-chin… it said I was brought here didn't it? To this hospital."

"Yes…" Haku said tentatively.

The pretty light blue haired girl still didn't turn around, staring silently out the window. A light snowfall had begun while they were dancing it seemed, the fresh powder landing atop the patches of old here and there. After a minute she spoke again. "The thing is… now that I think on it… I don't remember waking up here afterwards. To my recollection, I woke up at Atamakashi Hospital…"

Luka blinked in surprise, her beautiful features registering shock. "That's the hospital I remember waking up in too." She turned her blue eyes on Haku. "My article said Tenshi Hospital though, didn't it…?"

Haku nodded and Luka's expression grew troubled. Miku spun around abruptly and they locked eyes, green meeting red intently. "I need to see those pictures, Haku-chin."

"Pictures?" Luka blinked.

"The ones that guy said they have in their files." Miku replied without breaking eye contact with the snowy haired girl. "I have to see… please Haku-chin…?"

Haku hesitated only a moment before nodding then breaking the eye contact to look around. There were any number of computer terminals with nurses or doctors or techs using them visible down the hallway at various desks or stations, but she spotted the IT guys laptop unattended nearby. She stepped over to it and finding it unsecured she tapped a few keys to bring up a browser window, then slid a hand into her pocket and took out her pink and white floral patterned thumb drive. She found a spare USB port to plug it into then began going through screens.

"Did your flash drive start working again?" Luka asked curiously. "That's the same one Miku said wasn't working at the festival before isn't it?"

"It never broke." Haku replied as she tabbed through windows.

"No way." Miku said dubiously. "That thing was blank, I'm absolutely positive."

"I've had it for almost a year, I use it all the time. Look." Haku tabbed to the thumb drive's window and pointed at the screen. "See? Lots of folders full of things."

They both blinked at it in surprise. "I swear none of that was there before…" Miku muttered.

"That flash drive is huge Haku-chin! Look at that!" Luka pointed at a little pie chart menu on the side navigation bar of the screen. "Sixteen terabytes?! Jeez! I didn't think they even existed that big! I thought the largest ones were only one or two terabytes."

Haku didn't have an answer to that so she just went back to tabbing through windows. She found the hospital's cloud drive easily enough from the tech's network access and tried to get into the archives, but it seemed the IT guy's access didn't have permissions for the medical files. She pulled up her drive and began running her own personal code breaking program then tabbed back to the hospital's network. Screens flashed by and were gone so quickly her two girlfriends began murmuring about how amazing she was as they always did when she went through computers but she only paid the compliments half an ear as she focused on what she was doing. To her this wasn't that impressive, it was just something she could do. It was why Miku had specifically asked her for the pictures, because she knew Haku could find them, and it wasn't long before she did, her hacking program allowing her to crack the archive's access and search up Miku's files. They were dated two years ago, just like all the old videos Haku had found of her online had been. With a surreptitious glance at the petite girl beside her she opened up the files.

The only word for the images that came up beside the scan prints of the doctor's and coroner reports was "disturbing." Haku felt a shudder run through her entire body at the sight of one of her loves like this and she couldn't stop a strangled little noise from escaping her throat. The Miku in the picture before her was covered in bruises and had limbs bent in funny ways, but to Haku the most horrific thing was the empty glassy staring eyes. She felt a hand on her arm and glanced around to see Luka squeezing both her and Miku but the usually bubbly girl herself was stoic as she stared at the images, both pictures of herself as well as a host of x rays. Her parents and most of her family were doctors, and she had gone to medical school for awhile after all, she'd know what she was seeing. After a minute she began to mumble in a morbid monotone, "Contusions due to blunt trauma, lacerations, suspected head injury, possible brain damage-"

"Miku-chin!" Luka cried out, visibly disturbed by the other girl's reaction, but the light blue haired girl didn't stop. At first Haku thought she was reading the reports but ultimately realized her green eyes were glued to her own pictures.

"Possible collapsed lung, possible internal hemorrhaging, numerous broken bones, suspected caved chest cavity, ultimate cause of death major organ compression, internal suffocation, choked out… compressed…" she wrapped her arms around herself and tears began to leak down her face. "Choked out… compressed…"

"Miku-chin!" Luka cried out, putting her hands to either of Miku's shoulders and spinning her around to face her. "Stop!"

Miku stared with wide green eyes up at Luka as the tears steamed silently down her face. "My gods, I'm dead." She nearly whispered, then more loudly. "I'm dead! I died here! I died! I DIED!"

Haku stood up and threw her arms around the shorter girl. "You're not dead." She whispered in her ear. "You're right here. Right here with us."

Miku's arms came up reflexively, one around either of the other two, and her lip quivered. "Right… right here…" she murmured. Her gaze focused a bit and her arm tightened around Haku. "Not dead… but…" she glanced over Haku's shoulder at the laptop display, at the picture of her own corpse. "But I did… die…"

"I… might have too then…" Luka whispered, then turned her blue eyes up to meet Haku's red. "... Right? You found that article… right?" At Haku's slow nod Luka glanced over at the laptop. "Could you… could you look for records… for me too…?

Haku realized in that moment how haunting this must be for them, that no matter what had been going on the last few days they needed her to be the strong one now. She shifted her own gaze to the display and shook her head. "No… that was a different hospital. We could go there to look though… if you wanted. When we're done here…" she turned to gesture towards the ward off children but caught sight of the IT guy coming back down the hallway from a different direction. Panicking slightly she pulled away from the other two girls and bent over the keyboard, hurriedly copying all of Miku's files to her own storage, then closed the window and yanked her thumb drive free to slide it back into her pocket. As he was drawing near he saw them crowded around his laptop and narrowed his eyes suspiciously. Haku had closed everything she'd been doing but surreptitiously she opened an internet browser with her fingertip as though idly curious and tapped a YouTube shortcut. He came around to the display side with them and glanced at the screen.

"What are you doing?" He demanded suspiciously, barging in between Haku and the laptop to bend over and peer at the screen.

"We were just going to look up more songs." Haku said innocently, "To dance to."

Finding nothing apparently amiss he straightened up and turned to the girls. Luka and Miku had managed to blank their faces out completely and just blinked at him, so he turned his glare on Haku since she'd been the one to speak. "You weren't doing anything… you shouldn't have been, were you?"

Haku widened her red eyes in surprise and affected a breathy sound in her silvery voice. "Why no! Absolutely not. Whatever could I have been doing?"

He narrowed his eyes even further as though not sure whether to believe it. "Hacking my computer for instance?"

With a loud gasp Haku put a hand up to her mouth as though scandalized. "Oh of course not! I just wanted the intertubes to check the YousTubes for a song, that's all. I'm afraid I don't know that much about computery things."

One of the other two let out a choked snort and he turned his glare on them but whichever had done it had kept her face as smooth as the other's. He watched them for a long time before finally shooing them away with an admonitory "If you need more songs just ask. You shouldn't be messing with other people's computers."

"Okay, I'm very sorry. Thank you." Haku took Miku and Luka each by a hand and guided them away back toward the ward. As soon as they were out of earshot Luka's crystalline came out in a giggle.

"How did he believe that? I've never seen anyone as good with competes as you."

"Because I'm a girl." Haku said mildly.

They both blinked and Miku tilted her head. "What's that have to do with it?"

Haku shrugged like it was obvious. "The computer industry is dominated by men. Not a lot of women are coders or designers or the like. I just played on that assumption."

"You fibbed!" Luka accused but not harshly. She seemed more impressed than anything.

"It still seemed pretty suspicious with us there, I'm still surprised he believed you." Miku said.

Haku glanced back at her. "There are only two reasons to believe a lie; either you're afraid it's true, or because you want it to be true. Even if you know in your heart it's a lie your brain can still convince you if you want it badly enough or are strongly afraid of it."

They blinked at that as they saw Hime coming toward them from the ward. "Then he was afraid you were a girl?" Miku asked tentatively sounding like that seemed silly.

Shaking her head at that Haku looked around. "He was afraid we'd hacked his computer. In any place with highly sensitive information like a hospital leaving your terminal unlocked is a major security risk. He was afraid we'd done something that might get him into trouble, maybe even jeopardize his job. My being a girl and therefore unlikely to be good with computers helped him justify to himself that my lie was true."

Green and blue eyes were round with surprise as they regarded her. "Honestly Haku-chin," Luka said in tones of amazement. "I should just stop being surprised when you come up with this stuff."

Shaking her head causing her snowy white loose ponytail to sway being her and the diaphanous plastic wings of her bow to bob behind her head as though they were fluttering, Haku looked back toward Hime as she drew up to the three girls. "It's basic psychology."

They both cast dubious looks her way. "That doesn't seem like very basic psychology." Miku said plaintively.

"What's psychology?" Hime asked curiously.

They all shook their heads. "Nothing Hojoto-san."

Hime stared at them a moment or two before shrugging. "Well, nevermind that. You girls are done here. Fantastic work!"

They blinked. "We've only been here like an hour." Luka observed.

Hime nodded. "I know, volunteer work goes by so quick! But when you aren't getting paid you do what you can!" She seemed oddly enthused and the girls could only stare at her blankly. Hime seemed to catch the mood because she tilted her head. "You three look so dour! Cheer up, enjoy the rest of your afternoon off while I wrap up the busy work here. We wouldn't want to wear you girls out before your first big performance together world we?"

"We have a show coming?" Luka asked curiously, but Hime shook her head.

"Not yet, but I have a few things in the works. After your big reveal at your last show people have been clamoring to book you together!" They blinked in surprise and she laughed. "Don't worry, I'll only get you the best! Now run along." They nodded and watched their manager stroll off before turning around to make their way back out to the car.

It was Haku's turn to drive and for all she usually relished every chance she got to rev the Ferrari's engine and speed down the road this time she kept to the speed limit because of the somber mood inside the four eighty-eight. Concealed within the safety and relative privacy of the inside of the car Luka and Miku wrapped their arms around each other and the pretty light blue haired girl wept softly, the dazed sort of surreal look still on her face. Luka and Haku's eyes misted over too but Luka was firmly in her role as the strong one of them once more, and couldn't help but Haku wonder if that would last once they reached the other hospital. Suspicions were beginning to build up inside her and she needed answers, needed to find out how all of this connected together. Something was very wrong about all of this.

Luka blinked as Haku pulled the Ferrari into Tenshi Hospital and Miku looked up wiping at her eyes with the heels of her hands. When Haku pulled in to a spot and cut the engine Luka realized what she was doing and laid a hand on her arm. "Maybe… maybe we should just leave it alone…?" Her beautiful face was as smooth as ever but her blue eyes held a hint of fear.

Haku covered her idol's hand with her own. "There's something going on, and I have to find answers. I'm not good at much, but if I can figure it out maybe I can help you two for once." They both frowned and opened their mouths but Haku shook her head. "If you don't want to come in I understand, you can wait here, I'll only be a few minutes."

Luka shook her head. "No, if you need to we'll go too."

Miku leaned her face up to nuzzle at Luka's chin with her nose, which might have been more endearing it her face wasn't still damp from crying. "Do you not want to know for yourself?"

Luka wiped at a damp spot Miku had left on her jaw and her expression grew haunted. "I… have a feeling I already know what we'll find…"

They got out of the car and made their way inside composing themselves as they walked, moving past the main information desk as though they had business to be about and already knew where they were going. It was a little surprising for all three of them, to realize how little attention you drew doing whatever you wanted as long as you looked like you had a perfectly good reason to be there and a purpose to be about. No one stopped them or asked them any questions as Haku led them down hallways glancing in to empty rooms as they passed looking for an unattended terminal. When they finally found one, an exam room of some sort with a bed covered in that paper stuff they used and the countertop covered in things like a blood pressure cuff and plastic anatomy displays, she led them inside then pulled off some of the bed paper and ripped it free. Her girlfriends watched passively as she wedged the paper in at the top and closed the door on it so it would hang down and block the window, then twisted the lock with a click. The flimsy stuff wasn't enough to hide the fact that someone was in there at all; their silhouettes would be visible against the sheet but it would block sight at least so they couldn't be immediately identified and seen at what they were about.

Haku pulled the little rolling stool over to the monitor and keyboard mounted on a swinging arm and sat down, shifting herself so that if anyone with a key were to suddenly open the door they wouldn't be able to see what she was doing. Then she wiggled the mouse and let out an annoyed sigh. Miku and Luka stepped up beside her to peer at the monitor. "What is it?"

"The OS is locked." She replied gesturing at the user login screen.

Luka frowned. "Does that mean we can't get in?"

"No it just means it will take me a little longer than last time. I have to crack the OS before I can work on the hospital's network." She slid her flowery thumb drive out once more and plugged it in.

"How's that going to help if you can't open it?" Miku asked.

Haku stared at it a moment then shrugged. "Background application?" Neither of them liked that answer, narrowing their eyes at her. They weren't as computer savvy as she was but they weren't stupid either. She had no better answer to give them though and her mind seemed to slide off the subject as her focus shifted back to the terminal. They traded quizzical glances but a moment later were watching her begin to tap on the keyboard. A moment later a little black dialogue box popped up in the corner of the screen and began to cycle what appeared to be random characters passed so fast they couldn't be distinguished individually. Then a little black dot appeared in the password box of the login screen. Haku kept working the keyboard and after a moment another black dot appeared, then another, and another. After a few minutes had passed the entire window suddenly blinked and the login screen vanished to show the computer's desktop.

Miku blinked and traded looks with Luka again. "That… looked like some next level program hacking. Was that a password cracking program? How did you run it without the OS logged in?" Haku didn't look up, just gave a shrug as she opened the hospital's network window and began working on that next. The blue haired girl turned aside to Luka and whispered, "I swear that thumb drive was empty before. Where is all this coming from?"

The pink haired beauty had no answer and just shook her head as she watched the screen. Miku fell silent and they both observed as Haku went through Tenshi's network security as easily as she had Teishinkai's and began searching archives records. It wasn't long before she found Luka's coroner reports as she had Miku's at the other hospital. There were no extended pictures of broken bones here, just a single photo of what looked like Luka asleep except that her body lay far too rigidly stretched out on a narrow exam table. They all silently read the report, their eyes going through it even as Haku downloaded the record. Treatments administered for brain aneurysm, attempted surgery, time of death listed, coroner's findings, doctor's analysis, all done over a period of twelve hours. Whatever timing questions had existed for Miku there could be no question here. All of their eyes seemed to reach the bottom at the same time, read the same final words at the same time. " _Cadaver claimed for medical research by Doctor Hatsune Motsu and transferred to Atamakashi Hospital._ "

The mood in the room seemed to go from surreal confusion over the things they had been finding out today to stunned disbelief all at once. They all froze, then together Luka and Haku turned to look at Miku, who for her part looked just as bewildered as the other two did. "Daddy… did what…?"

"He claimed my… my… " Luka swallowed and had to force the last word out, her voice a whisper. "My corpse…?"

"I don't know…?" Miku answered tentatively. "None of this makes any sense! How could we have died but still be alive?!" Her chime like voice held a tone like that of a person on the edge of panic and her eyes were going a little wild. "I mean, I don't FEEL dead!" She held up her arm and pinched it as if to demonstrate.

"If I'm right…" Haku said quietly, "We all died." They turned to look at her, their eyes widening. "If I'm right, none of this is a coincidence. There's something going on here and... " She swallowed and winced apologetically at Miku. "And Doctor and Director Hatsune know what it is, are apart of it somehow."

In a flash Miku's expression changed from bewilderment to anger just as Haku expected it would. It always did when she perceived a slight to her family. "You're saying my parents did this to us?!" The blue haired girl demanded angrily. "You're going to blame them for our deaths?!" The anger was mixing with her panic to produce a dangerous fury and both Haku and Luka moved closer to comfort her, but Miku backed a few steps away from them in the tiny exam room, bumping up against the hospital bed.

"No, no I didn't say that." Haku tried her best to sound calm and rational but whenever either of the other two got upset with her it made her feel so terrible she wanted to cry.

"She didn't say 'their fault' Miku-chin, just that they knew something about it." Luka said, taking up the role of intermediary smoothly enough, though her expression was bordering on hysteria after reading her own coroner report.

Miku stared at Luka blinking several times like she was confused. "You're taking her side?!"

Luka shook her head. "Why is it always about sides with you two? There's no side to take, we're on the same side. It's just… everything is going crazy and your parents might know something that's all."

"They couldn't have done anything wrong!" Miku glared at them defiantly.

"No one is saying they did, Miku-chin." Haku said gently trying to keep the desperation she was feeling out of her voice. She gestured at the screen. "Look, you saw your dad's name there on the report, I'm not making this up. How could it be there if he wasn't involved somehow?"

Miku glanced over to the screen before looking back. "But you think they were involved in some way. That would mean they had a hand in… in what happened to us. That can't be right. It has to be a mistake."

"Whatever is going on, we have to know more." Luka said, getting close enough to lay a hand on Miku's arm. "We need to find out… together. Something happened to us two years ago and we have to find out." She swallowed and ducked her head slightly. "I have to know, anyway. I… I want you with me, so we can both figure this out. Is that… something you can do?"

The twintailed girl stared at the pink haired beauty with a severe expression, her green eyes blazing. "You're asking me to choose between my family and the two women I love?"

Luka stared right back for a moment before shaking her head. "I don't see it that way, but if you do then…" A tear slid silently down one of her cheeks. "Then no. No I wouldn't ask that. That's no choice at all. They're your parents." She reached up to wipe at the tear on her cheek with the tips of her fingers. "I just want to know what happened…"

Everyone stayed frozen for a tense few moments and then Miku finally broke the awkwardness by moving forward to wrap her arms around Luka, who eagerly squeezed her back. "I'm sorry, you're right. We have to find out what happened." The twintailed girl said. "I love you, you come first to me always, forgive me."

"There's nothing to forgive." Luka murmured against her shoulder. "They're your parents."

For some odd reason Haku suddenly felt like she was intruding on a private moment. Maybe their fledgling three person relationship was still too new to have ironed out such wrinkles, but she blushed and turned to the computer terminal, tapping a few keys to exit and close out what she'd been doing then retrieving her floral print thumb drive and returning it to her pocket. She'd copied the files anyway, they'd found what they needed. When she looked up both of the other two were watching her. Miku opened her mouth, "Haku-chin, I-"

A sudden banging on the door made all three of them let out surprised squeaks and jump in startlement. "What's going on in there?" Came a gruff voice from outside. "Why is this door locked? This room it's scheduled for use! Open up!" Miku and Haku froze in worry not sure what to do or how to handle the situation. The precaution of the paper over the window might have helped keep their activities covert but didn't hide the fact of their presence. Without a pause however Luka stepped in, taking lead as she did so naturally. With a smooth motion she unlocked and pulled open the door. A baffled looking doctor in a white coat lowered the hand he had raised in the air poised to thump on the door again. "What's the meaning of this? Who are you? What are you doing in there?"

"I'm sorry doctor, we just needed a moment to discuss… what to do now. When it comes time to consider… the death of a loved one… decisions have to made…" Haku blinked as she listened to the pink haired beauty play off their situation. Not a single untrue word, and yet woven together in such a way as to give a completely different impression.

The gruff man's face softened… a little. "Of course, I understand. But there are waiting rooms and conference areas for that. Please refrain from using exam rooms in the future."

Luka nodded as though accepting the rebuke. "You're right, please forgive us. We won't do it again."

He nodded and they made their way out of the medical wing they were in, backtracked their way out of the hospital, and eventually found their way back to the car. Once outside Miku took up Luka's hand in hers. "That was quick thinking."

The pink haired beauty squeezed the hand in hers in reply. "I just wanted to get us out of there so we could go get some answers."

"So long as we're being clear that were going to get answers, not accuse them... " Miku muttered, even now seeming unable to get over the slight to her family. Once they reached the car they paused a moment and Miku blinked. It was supposed to be her turn to drive but she shook her head. "I think… I think if it's okay… I'd rather just sit with someone right now…" she eyed them both and it suddenly felt awkward like she was trying to pick between them. They all felt it and it was moments like these that they tried to avoid with their turn taking. But this was an unusual circumstance and they were all feeling decidedly uncomfortable. Luka opened her mouth to reply but Haku interjected.

"It's fine, I'll… take an extended turn? The drive here wasn't far, you two can... " She trailed off, swallowed, then turned to the driver's side door. She felt like her chest was constricting, it was hard to breathe. Whatever had been going on the past few days with their bad moods combined with this… this new whatever it was, revelation… she felt like they were drifting away from her. No… like they were pulling away. She only wanted to help, to comfort them, but... Before she could move around to the other side of the car though she felt a hand on her arm and turned back. Miku's green eyes looked intently at her.

"Haku-chin… I'm sorry… I think… uhm…" Miku seemed to trip on her words but Haku just shook her head. She didn't think either of them could deal with this right then.

"Let's just… let's just get this figured out okay?" She said trying to keep her throat from choking up with emotion. The twintailed girl nodded slowly, dubiously.

"We'll talk afterward." Luka said diplomatically, looking from one of them to the other. "About everything. Okay?" They all nodded in agreement. It seemed the only thing to do. All that was left was to push through this, to go confront Miku's parents.


	20. Vocaloid Academy Chapter 20

The Ferrari's engine rumbled down as Haku turned it off, plunging them into silence except for the sound of the garage door of the Vocaloid Compound closing further back from where she had parked. It should have been Miku's turn to drive but the pretty light blue twintailed girl had wanted to sit between the two of them after their rather intense discoveries that afternoon at the hospitals and so they had called it an extended turn for Haku. They had all been dreading this moment, getting back and confronting Miku's parents about the things they'd found out, even normally confident Luka seemed subdued by the prospect, and until that moment they had had the luxury of a few more minutes thought, but now there was nothing left for it but to go find Hatsune Mira and Motsu and try to get some answers. They all got out of the four eighty-eight, sliding the doors shut behind them as they headed into the Compound from the garages, and as they stepped into the connecting corridor they were greeted by the stern visages of Gumi and Teto apparently waiting for them. The short haired girl had her arms crossed over her tummy beneath her curvy chest and was tapping a finger against the opposite arm, and the redhead had her hands clasped behind her back in just as stern a pose, though her face held much less expression than her companion's. The three idols slowed to a stop to blink at them and Gumi waved a hand in the air.

"Where have you been all day? I thought you said you had one work thing to do and then would be back!"

"You promised us lunch and big news." Teto said in a flat tone.

Miku winced, "We did promise. But… well…"

"We're sorry, really." Luka added. "It's been an extremely… tense afternoon, and we really need to go talk to the director."

Gumi rolled her head back with a sigh, her short green locks swaying ever so gently. "The work of a Vocaloid is never done, huh?"

Her misunderstanding of the situation gave them an opening and Haku shook her head, the diaphanous plastic wings attached to the ends of the bow holding her snowy hair back bobbing like a butterfly flapping. "We just need to ask them a few questions. Can we take a rain check for dinner?'

The other two girls nodded and Teto tilted her head, the conical point of one of her curled pigtails not quite poking her shoulder. "Want us to come with you?"

Haku Luka and Miku traded meaningful glances then they shook their heads as one. "No…" Haku said gently, her silvery voice carefully neutral to avoid any heavy emotion coming through her words. "No that's alright. Just be ready in a few hours and I'll text you guys or something, okay?"

They nodded again and turned to go, then something about the tension in the air must have tipped them off, some indescribable feeling as Vocaloids coming through, and they paused and half turned back. Teto opened her mouth like she wanted to say something, then closed it again looking frustrated at her lack of knowing what to say, but Gumi, naturally as bubbly as Miku, didn't have that problem. "We're not stupid, we know something's going on. The way the three of you have been acting weird the past few days, the slumped shoulders, the odd looks, it's obvious."

"What do you-" Luka began, then stopped at a hand gesture from Gumi to wait.

"I know it's not the time or place." Gumi said. "I just want you three to know that when… and if… the time comes, we're here for you." Gumi smiled, and surprisingly Teto spoke up with heartfelt words of her own.

"Haku-chan has been a really good friend to us, both in helping us train as well as in a few… tougher moments. And we've both really enjoyed getting to spend time with all of you." The redhead's curls swayed as she inclined her neck slightly. "In a way, seeing how much you love each other had helped guide us by example."

Gumi blushed furiously though all of their cheeks colored. "Teto-chin! That's… hardly appropriate!"

Teto blinked at her confusedly. "Really? But you said to open up more, to show my feelings. That's how I feel."

Gumi sighed and glanced at the somewhat flabbergasted idols with a half apologetic and half mortified look. "Sorry! Just… just call us if you need anything, okay?" When she'd gotten nods from everyone she took Teto's hand and led the stoic redhead off down the hall, whispering furiously in her ear as they went. The three watched them go in bewilderment before turning back to each other. Internally Haku was shocked that they thought of her and Luka and Miku as guides for _them_ when Haku herself had actually thought of the pair as role models for what she should be striving for with her two girlfriends… it was a sobering thought, the sort that really put into perspective that it just depended on what side of things you were to see circumstances differently. But now wasn't the time for that. She looked to the other two, and they tilted their heads back at her. Now that the moment had finally come and there were no more distractions they were all at a loss as to how to proceed. As so naturally occurred with them, Luka took the lead, beginning to make decisions, or at least offer them.

"Your parents are probably either in the director's wing or in the lower levels, Miku-chin. It shouldn't be hard to find them, then we can ask them for a private word and get some answers." The pink haired beauty shifted her head and her flowing unbound pink stands swayed around her.

Miku thought about it for a moment and Haku worried she would reject the plan; the twintailed girl was so prickly about her family's honor that she honestly scared Haku at times, but after a few seconds she nodded her acceptance. "So we'll check the director's offices first then go downstairs."

They turned together and made their way to the security door that would take them into the restricted areas of the Compound. Miku beeped the chip reader to let them in and they turned away from the elevator at first to check the offices beyond but found them mostly empty. Haku stared at the faces of the few people there, faces she didn't recognize. It was eerie, but it was another piece of the puzzle adding up in her mind. Finding no one they were looking for they proceeded back to the elevator and punched in the first sublevel, then the second, then third. They only glanced out the elevator doors on the containment level without exiting it, then Luka hit the button to take them lower yet. The pink haired beauty's face held that deep sorrow again, and it was present in Miku's face too. With the exception of that one sublevel they got out at each stop to look around, and while other two girls kept looking for Miku's parents, Haku watched the faces of the people they passed, trying to place each one. Some she knew she'd seen, others were strange to her. She kept a running count, and every last one of them looked to her to be at least a decade older than she was, in their thirties or more and all with looks of professionals. Doctors or tech personnel, administrators or contractors. None approached anything like what she'd been given to understand a Vocaloid was.

Sublevel four was different from the previous ones in the rather striking way that it was completely sterile. Pure white walls with long white strip lights overhead cast the entire place in an eerie sort of almost glow as light bounced off of not only the walls but polished metal and glass tables and chairs Haku could see through the doors on either side of the hallway they began walking down. Room after room full of bright sterile furniture and rolling trays of strange looking stainless steel tools and tables. It was like something straight out of a SciFi horror flick. She felt her anxiety mounting and apparently she wasn't the only one. Both of her girlfriends had looks of apprehension on their pretty faces and Miku even let out a little shiver.

"This place seriously gives me the heebie jeebies." The petty light blue haired girl said.

Haku blinked and tilted her head. "You've never been down here before?" She asked.

Miku shook her head, her green eyes wide as she looked around. "No… not that I can remember, but…"

Luka's crystalline voice picked up where Miku trailed off, "But there's something vaguely... familiar about all of this…" Miku nodded and shivered again.

The hallway eventually terminated at a final room which they eased the door open to peak inside then let out gasps of astonishment. This room was much larger than the previous ones with several metal tables against the walls beside computer terminals and more instrument trays all surrounding a huge centralized network station in the middle of the room. The place was as empty as the rest of the sublevel and they eased their way inside and Haku moved over to one of the tables. The computer terminal was dark but it had a keyboard etched into it and a mouse hooked up, and it also had various different sorts of wires wrapped up neatly beside it with plug in ends ranging from standard micro USB and USB-C plugs and component cables to a series of custom looking jacks she didn't recognize. A closer look at the table showed knobs and levers on it that would allow it to not only adjust height but incline as well, and it had straps attached at convenient spaces for ankles, wrists, waist and neck. She reached out a had as if to touch the table but stopped with her fingers just shy of it and looked to the wall the table would face if it were inclined upright. As blank and featureless as all the rest she stared at it with her red eyes wide. Memories came rushing back to her in a flood so overwhelming she let out a little strangled squeak, weeks upon weeks of odd dreams washing over her.

Luka and Miku were by her side with hands on either shoulder. "Haku-chin? What is it?" Luka asked as Miku looked over the table and wall as though she might find the answers in what the snowy haired girl was looking at.

"I… I've…' Haku stammered, then swallowed hard and turned to face them. "I've… been here before… I think…"

They both blinked at her. "You think?" Miku asked right atop Luka's questioning, "What? When?"

Haku shook her head and put a hand to her temple and grimaced, the flood of imagery not stopping. "I don't… know… so confusing…" They looked at her with faces full of concern and trepidation.

"Let's get out of here, my mom and dad aren't here anyway." Miku suggested and Luka nodded. They tried to use their grip on her shoulders to guide her back toward the exit but she shook them off.

"No. No wait…" Haku turned toward the giant network terminal in the middle of the room and moved over to shake a mouse to wake it up.

"Haku-chin, what are you doing?" Luka's crystal voice carried worry as well as dubiousness now. "What are you doing?'

"You can't access that terminal, Haku-chin, your clearance isn't-" Miku cut off with a squeak of surprise as Haku slid her security chipped ID badge into the chip reader and the computer screen logged in and came up with the desktop. "Haku-chin! Did you hack the network?!"

"Not yet…" Haku murmured and slid her floral patterned pink and white thumb drive out her pocket and plugged it in to a USB port. Before she could do anything else though they both took up one of her hands in theirs.

"Haku-chin, don't." Miku's chime like tone was strained with worry. "Please just stop a minute."

"What's going on?" Luka added. "Tell us."

Haku looked from one to the other of the two women she loved more than life itself and it calmed her frayed nerves somewhat. After a moment she nodded toward the table they had been at. "Ever since I became a Vocaloid I've been having these dreams every few nights… I thought they were dreams… about Miku-chin's parents poking and prodding at me, talking about me like I couldn't hear them. They were using medical instruments and technological tools on me."

"That… sounds disconcerting, but I don't understand." Luka said.

Haku took a deep breath and nodded at the table again. "Every dream was in the same place. A whitewashed wall with bright light…" They all turned to stare at the table in shock, then looked back.

"You mean…? Mom and dad…?" Miku stuttered, all signs of her usual displays of prickliness about her family nonexistent.

Haku shook her head. "I don't know… but... " She swallowed. "I think the answers are in the database." She hesitated and squeezed her eyes shut for a moment. "I know the answers are in there. About everything; my dreams, your… incidents… All of it." She couldn't bring herself to say 'your deaths' but by the looks on their faces they understood. They understood, and were mortified. "Please… let me…" she trailed off, flexing her fingers in their grips. They cast looks at each other full of worry, maybe even a little fear, but after a moment they both let go at the same time and Haku leaned down eagerly and began hitting keys. Her fingers blurred over the etched keyboard and the other two watched the screen intently while she hacked in to the Vocaloid network. Usually whenever they watched her working a computer with windows flashing passed and characters scrolling by they would mutter appreciatively or talk about how amazing she was, but this time all three of them just stared at the screen in silence. Once she was in she searched for anything she could find about herself or the two beautiful women with her… and all at once she found it. Three sets of eyes went wide, three mouths opened and let out choked gasps of shock and horror.

The folder she had found was inside of Director Hatsune's files named 'Vocaloid Records' and contained exactly nine folders inside it, titled with names: Hatsune Miku, Megurine Luka, Megpoid Gumi, Kasane Teto, Camui Gackupo, Hibiki Mokoto, Yowane Haku, and two names she didn't recognize, Yamada Juun and Machida Sora. Their shock had come when she'd opened Miku's file to reveal a series of technical schematics and diagrams, pictures and blueprints and a word document log. She opened one of the images to find a picture of the light blue twintailed girl lying prone on a table indistinguishable from those in the room they were now in, the time stamp showing two years ago. The image was similar to the one they'd seen of her in the hospital with bruises and bent limbs after her accident on stage had apparently taken her life, and though her eyes had been closed in this picture the stiff body and too rigid posture was telling. Haku flipped to the next image to find a technical blueprint superimposed over the first image marking various points on Miku's body with notes and technical markings. The next images showed diagrams and schematics of a series of implants that would augment speed and reaction time of muscles throughout the body, improving reflexes and dexterity. One picture was of a self contained power core designed for the chest that would generate the energy for their abilities, this schematic so complicated it looked like a solid block of text. The following image held a number of views of a schematic of what looked like a cranial implant with a heading that read "The Vocaloid Chip."

The pictures all continued in similar veins as Haku flipped through them and the three girls stared at the images spellbound, until Haku pulled up the word document log. It was arranged like a journal and read like one, the first entry a date from two years ago that exactly matched the first picture. " _Day One, Subject Hatsune Miku, Post Mortem Vocaloid Cyborg Conversion. Process has begun well. Internal organ damage severe but not extensive, death by chest compression causing circulatory failure. All of it reversible with post mortem procedures. The V-Serum is successful, keeping cellular necrosis from taking hold. Will begin implants once all body damage repaired._ " The next entry dated a few days later read, " _Day four, Subject Hatsune Miku, Post Mortem Vocaloid Cyborg Conversion. Initial implants complete. Limbs all augmented and structural ground work began. The Vocaloid Chip will come last of course, requiring a partial lobotomy to make room for it, but the rest of the implants must be done first. The Vocaloid Cyborg should be completed within the month._ "

Miku had her hands clapped to her mouth as she read over Haku's shoulder, her green eyes wide with horror at what she was seeing. Luka's face was ashen and Haku felt like she might be sick at any moment. The log continued like that for page after page describing a long process of implants and medical procedures and technological developments in the creation of a cyborg. She closed the log and the final few pictures showed a very normal looking Miku, though still stretched out rigidly on a table, and a full body schematic listing implants throughout her body. Abruptly Haku closed out of Miku's files and switched to Luka's folder only to find the same sorts of things. There were less pictures apparently owing to the pink haired beauty's rather simpler death of brain aneurysm, but the log was there too, the schematics were all there, the files were the same sorts of things. " _Day X, Subject Megurine Luka, Post Mortem Vocaloid Cyborg Conversion._ " Haku felt her stomach lurch, threatening to empty itself at the horror, and she heard Luka whisper behind her, "We're… we're… cyborgs…?"

Miku let out a keening moan muffled by her hands over her mouth. "This… this can't be…" She could have been stating a denial or pleading for it to be wrong, but either way she sounded desperate. "There has to be some mistake… my parents...?"

Haku closed Luka's folder and opened her own. There were no technical schematics or blueprints here, only a few pictures of herself standing staring at the camera, and though she looked rigid and glassy eyed she didn't look dead. The picture showed her with her current red eyes and white hair and was time stamped shortly after her arrival. Her log started with her arrival date and read " _Subject Yowane Haku, Vocaloid Analysis. It seems Yowane Yuko and Kento are still active. After all these years it's strange to find out that they're still working on development but it's not surprising. What is surprising, even for them, is that they used their own daughter. Medical examination showed some slight internal chemical damage indicative of pancuronium bromide and potassium chloride, strongly suggesting lethal injection. Yowane Haku has a baseline power output far higher than any we've seen so far and has different programming protocols than the ones we developed for Hatsune Miku and Megurine Luka, and while we can access her diagnostic cycles we still can't crack her code base to gain access to her root command functions. Until Mira or I manage to do so she's a security risk. Her access keyword is not "Starlight" like the rest, we tried that one. Until we can find it or crack her code base we can't do a full system check or completely evaluate her._ "

Haku read through this a second time, then a third. Lethal injection… programming protocols… code base… keyword… keyword? "Access keyword "Starlight"? What does that mean?' She wondered aloud, then turned at the sound of the voices of the other two behind her speaking in unison.

"Access keyword accepted."

They stood as still and rigid as statues, their eyes blank and glazed over and their expressions smooth and neutral with no hint of the distress they were feeling, or at least had been feeling. Haku felt like they couldn't even see her now, or at least couldn't register who she was. They stared straight ahead and she took a tiny step toward them. "Luka-chin? Miku-chin? Are you okay?"

"All systems functioning nominally, further details unavailable due to insufficient security access." They both replied in unison, their voices sounding like they always did but coming out as a neutral monotone.

Haku blinked at that somewhat taken aback. She pressed the hand against her middle a little bit tighter trying to get the queeziness under control. This was super eerie and she didn't like seeing her two girlfriends like this. "What… what are you doing…?"

"Access command mode, instructional interface." They both intoned again in that same monotone.

Haku blinked her red eyes then turned her head back around to look at the screen with the report with her name on it still displaying. "Access keyword… access command mode…" she whispered quietly to herself. She scrolled down a little on her report, another entry from Hatsune Motsu coming up from a date a few days after the first which read, " _Still can't determine Yowane Haku's access keyword. Without it we can't give her instructions, or wipe her memory if she sees things she shouldn't. The security risks are high, but so are the potential gains. We can't ignore how powerful her potential is, and we can't afford to pass up the opportunity to study what advances her parents may have made in her construction._ " Construction… they were cyborgs… she'd said the keyword… command interface… she'd have to treat it like a computer input. Turning back to the waiting girls she asked "What are your security access parameters?"

"Locked to top level Directors." They replied in unison.

Haku glanced down at the line of text on the screen again that included the words " _memory wipe_ " and shivered. Whatever the circumstances, whatever they really were inside, they were still people. It wasn't right to treat them like this and she couldn't allow it. She had to think of something while she had the chance, but her network hacking could be detected any moment and they didn't have a lot of time. "Lock out command interface and data writing protocols, access for Yowane Haku, Hatsune Miku, and Megurine Luka only."

"I'm sorry," They intoned still in unison, sounding like crystal chimes together. "You do not possess top level security access."

"Restrict all command functions, same access." Haku tried.

"I'm sorry," They they repeated. "You do not possess top level security access."

Haku wrung her hands with worry, her usual serene self possession non existent at the moment with how insane things were turning out. She still felt like she was going to be sick any moment, but… she had to do something, to protect their minds until they could figure all of this out. She couldn't access their brains herself, but if this was a diagnostic room… Tapping the etched keys on the console she quickly set all of the files they had found to download so they could go through them more thoroughly later, then once the pink indicator LED on her thumb drive was blinking rapidly with the data transfer she took one of either girl's hands in her own and led them over to one of the work tables. She'd seen in the schematics where access ports had been hidden under synthetic skin covers at the base of the skull and Miku didn't so much as twitch when Haku lifted her light blue hair out of the way and began feeling along her neck. She found a little spot where the skin felt the faintest bit different, a little more of a rubbery texture than natural skin, and she pinched it and pulled. The port plug pulled free exposing a metal port embedded in the skin, still with no reaction from Miku. Rooting through the cables Haku found the one that fit and plugged it in, wincing a little at the length of it, imagining the thing sliding along the other girl's skull, but she supposed that wasn't quite right. Then Haku sat down at the terminal and got to work.

Once she'd gotten into the network from this station as well locating the diagnostic software wasn't hard. She began running a diagnostic routine and watched the protocols scrolling passed, the code immensely complex but nothing she couldn't follow. She saw subroutines for all kinds of things, everything from anatomical operation and management all the way up to higher brain functions. There were restrictions on when and how they could use their powers, how they could operate regarding souldrinkers, protocols on public operation, and even a subroutine specifically designed to force them to obey the orders of the Directors. There was way to much code here for her to possibly sift through and write in any reasonable time frame, so she just scanned through the lines of text with search functions until she finally found the security permissions. She added her name and Luka's to Miku's security subroutine and deleted all other names, then saved and disconnected. Once she had replaced the epidermal plug in Miku's port and located Luka's she repeated the process, adding her name and Miku's and deleting the rest. That finished she disconnected Luka and stepped back.

"Lock out command interface and data writing protocols, access for Yowane Haku, Hatsune Miku, and Megurine Luka only." She repeated her earlier command.

"Yes, Director Yowane." They both intoned in their musical neutral monotone.

Haku shivered at being addressed in such a way, but at least the security permissions had worked. She was exceptionally grateful for her computer skills right that moment, and suddenly she wondered if she really was good with them or if she was just programmed to be… she shoved the thought away for the moment. "Restrict all command functions, same access."

"Yes, Director Yowane."

It was too bad she couldn't do the same for herself if she… if they really were all… cyborgs… she pressed her hand to her middle again, still feeling sick. "End command interface and resume prior function."

Miku let out a little squeaking hiccup and blinked several times as her expression returned to normal and looked around, then began wiping at the partially dried tears on her cheeks. Luka put a hand to her mouth and muttered to herself, "This is not the time to be thinking about truffles…"

"How…" Miku swallowed. "How did we get over here…?" Her chime like voice, now back to normal, sounded trepadicious, as though she already had an inkling of the answer to that but needed to hear it.

"I… found your command access in your… your father's logs…" Haku muttered.

"You… accessed us…?" Miku spluttered.

"What did you do…?" Luka demanded, her voice hardening.

Haku felt her stomach turn over. "Nothing bad! I just restricted your command interface."

"What… does that mean?" Luka wanted to know.

Haku waved at the main terminal in the middle of the room. "Director Hatsune's log indicated they could… do things… with a command interface, with an access keyword. Apparently we all have one but mine's… different. But he mentioned... " She took a deep breath and spit it out. "He mentioned memory wipes." Their eyes went wide as she hurried on. "I couldn't let that happen! What if he told you to forget all this? Or forget… me?!" Tears welled up in her eyes at that. "He said I'm a security risk! What if I got… purged… out something...?!"

"Purged?!" Miku was practically beside herself. None of them knew how to handle this, finding out such a thing out of the blue. "Security risk?!"

"I don't understand… why you've both been so… upset with me the last few days… I can't figure out what I did wrong… but I don't want you to… to forget me all together!" Haku squeezed her eyes shut forcing tears out of the corners. "I couldn't stand that!"

"Wrong?!" Luka blinked, wrapping her arms around her middle and shaking her head, her pink flowing hair shaking side to side behind her. "You think you did something wrong?" She sounded slightly incredulous. " Haku-chin, you-"

Whatever Luka was about to say was cut off as they all heard the ding of the elevator echo from down the hall. They all jumped in panic and Haku turned to rush for the main network terminal in the middle of the room. She needed to get the screens closed out and retrieve her thumb drive before whoever it was saw it. Suddenly however she stopped dead in her tracks a couple of steps away from the etched keyboard as her phone began to ring. Who could possibly be calling her now? This wasn't the time for… but she couldn't stop herself from reaching into her pocket and taking her phone out to look at the screen.

"Haku-chin!" Miku cried out. "What are you doing?! This isn't the best time for social calls!"

The contract on the phone came up in front of Haku's eyes as she looked down, reading 'Father' in what seemed like ominous letters. She didn't want to take this, didn't want to hear his voice… but she could not stop her thumb from swyping the accept call button and raising it to her ear.

"Haku-chin!" Luka shouted trying to get her attention.

"Who's down there?!" Came voices from out in the hallway, footsteps echoing down the corridor intro the room picking up speed as they approached.

"Hello?" She asked worriedly, almost fearfully, her silvery voice full of dread.

"Haku." Came her father's rich baritone voice. "Access keyword: Prism."

Haku's red eyes glazed over and her entire body went stiff as a board, her face blanking out completely and she responded in a neutral monotone, "Access keyword accepted." Both of her girlfriends were losing control of their emotions, getting in front of her, waving their arms at her, calling her name, trying to get the phone out of her grip, but she couldn't focus on them right then.

"Where are you right now?" Her father asked.

"Vocaloid Compound, sublevel four." She intoned.

"Haku-chin, no!"

"Haku-chin, what are you doing?!"

"What's going on in here?!"

"Daddy! Something's wrong!"

"We know everything, Director, but we can't get her off the phone!"

"Very good." Her father said in her ear even as the voices of the others washed over her unheeded. "When I hang up I want you to crash their system. Destroy their database, power down the building, then find and release Juon Kiku. You are to go with her and do what she says until she takes you to a hiding point, then you are to stay with her until your mother and I come for you. Do you understand?"

"I understand."

"Good. See you soon, daughter."

The line disconnected and Haku returned her phone to her pocket with a stiff yet smooth motion. Luka and Miku looked at her with eyes full of worry. "Haku-chin…?

Without so much as a pause Haku moved the last few steps to the network terminal and began hitting controls. "What's she doing?" Came Mira's voice at the same time as her husband shouted "Stop her!" Haku registered hands coming for her and she began to hum a low pulsing note through pursed lips even as her fingers continued to blur over the etched keyboard. The sonic barrier she began to generate was similar to the cushion she'd made when she'd jumped off the fifth floor walkway in the mall to break her fall but she maintained it and it served to keep the hands grabbing at her from reaching her.

"Do something!" The Director's deep bass voice seemed to boom through the largely empty space of the room.

"I… I can't reach her…" Miku muttered.

"She's… stronger than we are." Luka added.

"Then Resonate! Stop her!"

"If we do that we could… hurt her… or…"

The Director growled and opened his mouth and there seemed little doubt that he was about to order it anyway but he never got the chance. Screens opened and windows flew by and closed in the blink of an eye as Haku worked the controls and just before Motsu could voice his order the sound of power draining from systems could be heard through the walls. A moment later there was a reverberating explosion from somewhere deeper underground followed a split second later by the lights all going out. The only illumination came from the monitors in the room, all of which suddenly blanked out and began to show blue error screens. With the network down and the power out Haku turned from the terminal and headed for the elevator. She was nearly done here.

… … … … …

"Haku-chin no!" Miku beat furiously against the snowy haired girl's bubble as she moved down the hall they had only so recently come down as she proceeded back toward the elevator.

"Haku-chin, stop, please!" Luka cried out, not beating on the shield but still trying to reach her.

"Where is she going?!" Miku's father demanded, as if any of them knew the answer to that.

"Please Haku-chin! I know you can hear me! Please!" Miku practically begged, tears flowing unchecked down her cheeks.

Luka couldn't believe what was happening, couldn't understand what was going on. They'd found out such horrible things then suddenly Haku was walking in a daze as though she wasn't aware of what was going on around her, or at least couldn't process it. Luka wasn't sure if she was going to break down in a puddle of tears any second or explode into a million pieces, but she knew something terrible had just happened and they couldn't make Haku stop. She was dumbfounded that Director Hatsune wanted them to Resonate to take her down… though apparently he considered her a security risk…? That could hurt or even kill her… she refused to kill Haku. She'd die first.

The elevator had no more power than anything else in the black out, but in the dark of the corridor when they reached it Haku turned calmly aside to a service stair and ascended a flight. They kept trying futilely stop her, calling her name to no avail, before she exited the stair on the third sublevel. Luka felt like her insides froze when she realized where Haku was going. She shared a look of horror with Miku and they redoubled their efforts to reach their girlfriend but Haku took no notice as she stepped into the detention cell rows. The only light here was a faint red emergency lighting casting eerie shadows over everything.

"Haku-chin! No! Don't do it!" Miku shrieked but Haku moved right up to Kiku's cell, The darkly beautiful redhead rising smoothly to her feet and smiling at Haku.

"Is it time, Yowane-san?"

Haku just started at her with that glassy eyed neutral expression and Kiku let out a low dark laugh. The Director's bass boomed around them, "She can't be allowed to set Juon Kiku free! Stop her! Now!" He ordered.

Luka and Miku hesitated, every ounce of will power they possessed going against their instincts to attack. Kiku was an enemy, but Haku wasn't and they didn't know what they should do. That hesitation was all that Kiku needed. She let out another smokey chuckle and raised a hand to the cell's latch. "Oh please. It's far too late for that." Her red-orange eyes turned to dark swirling orbs and she emitted a low dark note, and a flash of black anti-light like a photo negative lashed out at the grey mesh that comprised the "bars" of her cage. The material specially designed to absorb sonic force and disperse it harmlessly turned brittle and began to flake away. Giving a little shove against the door the latch crumbled like plaster breaking and the hinges swung open. "As you can see," she added as she stepped free of her cell toward them, "It was too late the moment you put me in here." Both of their eyes went wide a they realized Kiku had let herself be imprisoned, had chosen not to escape to serve her own ends.

"Take her out!" Motsu shouted and with the threat now Kiku rather than Haku neither Miku nor Luka hesitated in stepping up, assuming dance poses right beside each other, but before they could so much as move Kiku waggled a finger at them.

"Now now, none of that. You know I could kill you both easily. I almost did before afterall."

"That was when we were tired from fighting your minions!" Miku said narrowing her eyes dangerously, her horror at their discoveries coupling with her fear for Haku now redirected into anger at Kiku.

"We beat you before that when we were at our best." Luka's reminded her, quietly but just as dangerously. She could feel her own emotions surging within her breast. She wanted to lash out, wanted to attack.

Kiku's smile just widened and she tapped a finger to her chin thoughtfully. "Hm, true. Yet now I have a powerful ally." She reached a hand up to Haku's face and ran her fingertips in a gentle caress across the snowy haired girl's cheek. "Don't I, Yowane-san?" She cooed.

"Yes, Juon Kiku." Haku intoned in that same neutral monotone.

"Don't you touch her!" Miku snarled and took a step forward.

"Haku-chin wouldn't help you!" Luka said in denial, but even to her own ears she sounded like she was trying to convince herself as much as anyone else.

Kiku laughed, a dark rich sound. "You're so sure of that?" She looked back up at Haku. "Yowane-san, a warning blast, if you please."

Luka and Miku's eyes went wide with shock as Haku lifted a hand without hesitating, a quick note and a pure white blast coming from her with little time to react. The two idols managed a defensive note in time to try to counter the wave but it wasn't enough and they were blown back several meters to land in a heap at Miku's parent's feet. The Doctor and Director immediately bent to help them up but they were already rising. Kiku took a couple of steps forward, and with Haku behind her at her shoulder she didn't have to make an extra effort to try to appear menacing. The threat was real, and Luka tried to move a little to more fully cover Mira and Motsu with her own body as a shield. The darkly beautiful woman smirked at the small group. "Care to try your luck?"

"We… could still Resonate…" Miku said, but she sounded doubtful.

"Ah yes, your little power combining trick." Kiku said, tapping her chin once more. "An interesting notion, that. But if you can do it, so can Yowane-san and I."

"You wouldn't get as much out of the Resonance as we would." Luka said, but she could feel the defiance draining out of her. She could see where this was going, knew instinctively that this battle was already lost.

"Oh no doubt. You're both surely very practiced at the technique. However, Yowane-san and I are both much more powerful than either of you. Do you suppose your advantage would cancel out our superior strength?" Her smile turned positively wicked and her voice lowered as she asked, "Shall we find out?" Luka and Miku looked at each other, long looks of suffering and heartache, then they turned their faces up to Haku, blue and green eyed gazes meeting vacant glossy red. With looks of extreme shame and regret they dropped their faces and shook their heads. There was nothing to be done about it. They would just end up hurting Haku, maybe killing her, and Kiku might win in the end. The redhead just laughed and reached out to take Haku's arm in hers and stroked it with her other hand affectionately. "I thought not. Now here's how this is going to go, Vocaloids. I'm going to take Yowane-san and we're going to leave. If you try to stop is, we will kill you." It didn't sound like a boast, or even an idle threat, just a statement of fact. The thought galled Luka to her core. She should have ended this… this woman… when she'd had the chance. "If you try to rescue Yowane-san, we'll kill you, and if at any point it looks like you might succeed in taking her away from me again…" Her voice dropped even lower and now the threat did come through, "I'll kill her, then you."

Luka tried to surge forward at that, the open threat to Haku making her react without thinking, but the Director's hand on her shoulder stopped her. Kiku just laughed and turned away,and Haku turned to follow. "Haku-chin…" Luka got out, her crystal voice overflowing with emotion. The pair stopped and turned back, Kiku curiously and Haku still blankly. "Don't go. Please. I love you."

"Haku-chin, I love you." Miku sounded on the verge of despair.

Kiku laughed and reached up to stroke Haku's head. "Don't bother, she can't hear you." The witch paused a moment tilting her head. "No, that's not quite accurate. She can hear you, she just can't do anything about it right now." With that Kiku raised a hand and wiggled her fingers. "Tootles!" Then she led Haku away, leaving up the stairs and presumably heading for the Compound's exits.

"She… she's gone…" Tears streaming down Miku's face her voice sounded hollow, as though a part of her had been torn out and stolen away.

Luka sank to her knees as despair darker than the blackest night began to roll over her. She knew how Miku felt, she couldn't believe she wasn't bleeding out with her heart torn asunder. "I didn't…. I didn't even _try_ …" Her throat choked up and she had to force air through, "I've… I've failed her again…" Luka murmured. She squeezed her eyes shut and began to shake as she huddled in on herself. If the blackness roiling over her right then were to swallow her whole she didn't think she would have minded. "She… she left us… I wasn't… good enough…"

Miku dropped down beside her and flung her arms around her, and Luka hugged her back. The two huddled there clutching each other and the flood gates broke. In the darkened room with it's eerie red emergency lighting casting them in flickering red shadows they let loose with great heaving wails, deep soul wrenching cries of sheer despair. Their tripod was broken, and right then it felt like Haku had torn their hearts out. Luka couldn't keep the dark thoughts out of her mind. How could she leave them? Hadn't she said she loved them? Could Kiku have been right all along? Was she just starstruck and was over them now? Luka couldn't see where she'd gone wrong, but she was positive it was her fault. Judging by how hard Miku was clinging to her while she cried the twintailed girl was having the same thoughts. Luka clung back just as hard.

She wasn't sure how long they huddled there in each other's arms, but by the time their tears ran dry it didn't seem long enough. She thought she could have stayed crouched there for a month or a year and it wouldn't have been long enough. Miku pulled back a bit but held on to her still and looked Luka in the eye, sniffling a bit. Her chime like voice was strained as she whispered, "Do we… do we even have the right… to feel this way…?"

Luka blinked at that. "What do you mean?"

Miku dropped her eyes. "We're…. We're robots… aren't we? We're not… not even real… can we even have real feelings…?"

Luka felt something deep within her surge up out of whatever dark corner of herself it had been shoved while she'd been crying. A protective instinct, a need to comfort. She drew Miku to herself, wrapping her arms around the twintailed girl's shoulders. "Of course we're real." Hey crystal voice was still thick with emotion but for her the act of giving comfort was comforting in and of itself.

"But we're… robots…" Miku sniffled. "We died… and now we're robots…"

"We aren't robots." Luka said, trying her best to put conviction in her voice, but she didn't think she managed it very well.

"Then what are we?" Miku looked back up with an intensity in her green eyes. "You saw what Haku-chin found."

"The files said 'cyborgs' …" Luka tried.

"It's the same thing, isn't it?" Miku demanded, but Luka had no answer for her. She felt lost herself, they were muddling through this together now.

"We'd… we'd have to go read through the files some more. We only got a glance at them, but…"

"Like the Hatsunes are going to let us." Miku muttered darkly, and Luka blinked in surprise. She didn't like the tone Miku used, so final and dismissive.

"You mean… your parents…?"

"They aren't my parents! I'm not real! Their daughter died two years ago!" Miku practically shouted, and with her raised voice she caught the attention of her mother and father who had been standing to the side talking amongst themselves to give the girls some privacy in their grief. Now they came over and tried to approach, but Miku shuffled back and away from them, putting herself behind Luka.

Mira's expression turned pained and she reached out a hand as though she might approach anyway, but then dropped it. "You _are_ our daughter." She said, her voice full of worry and pain, but love as well. "Whatever else happened, whatever we… were forced to do…"

"Your daughter is dead. I'm a bad copy." Miku said angrily, and Luka couldn't stop a wince. The light blue haired girl was taking this very badly.

"You may not be the same as you used to be, physically or even mentally, but you are still Hatsune Miku." Motsu replied, his deep bass voice reverberating against the cells. It seemed strange that they were taking time out of the crisis to talk to their daughter, but Luka supposed the crisis their two top Vocaloids were facing must have been more important to them at the moment.

"What…" Miku swallowed. "What do you mean, changed?"

Mira gestured towards Miku's head. "I'm not sure how much you saw, but…"

"Just assume we saw everything." Luka interjected, not wanting any more spite than was really necessary.

Mira nodded slowly before continuing. "Before the… change…" she stumbled a bit, not sure exactly how to phrase it delicately, and Miku's face darkened a little more. "You were interested in different things. You were fully committed to your medical studies, a model student and studious daughter. The family legacy was all that was important to you. Music and art were little more than hobbies to you."

"See?" Miku spat into a pause from her mother. "Your daughter is gone. She's dead."

Motsu shook his head severely. "No, that's not true." He tapped a finger to his own temple. "The Vocaloid chip is a cranial implant which needs room in the brain. A partial lobotomy was required to fit it inside your head, but when the brain becomes inert the chemical reactions and electrical pulses that govern it can't be damaged. They're already 'off' so to speak. The chip simply replaces a part of the brain that's dead and manages the rest of it after activation. You may be interested in different things, maybe even see your priorities in life differently, but…" His voice choked up with a little emotion, nothing even remotely close to the women around him, but for anyone else it was as much as a sob of grief. "You're our daughter, we raised you, we know you, who you are inside. Interests aren't important, priorities are what you make of them. What matters is who you are as a person, how you behave, how you react to things, and I can assure you, those core elements of yourself have not changed in the slightest. You are still _you_."

Miku fell silent for a moment as though considering this, and Luka took the pause to interject again. "I don't understand something. If she wasn't interested in music as more than a hobby in the first place, before the… accident… then what was she doing on stage as an idol? If she was so studiously dedicated to her medical studies, then why was she even singing professionally in the first place?"

"Because… of you, Megurine-san." Mira said.

Luka blinked in surprise, "Me?"

Mira nodded and smiled slightly. "She was not interested in music as an art for herself, but like any teenage girl she still listened to it now and then. You were her favorite idol, and she would play your records over and over."

"That's… odd. I can't have been an idol for more than a year at that point, if that."

"Nine months…" Miku murmured, and Luka looked around at her girlfriend with a curious tilt to her head. Miku made a face somewhere halfway between embarrassed and upset. "I remember… you had two records out. I got the first one for my birthday, and I saved my money for two weeks to buy the other. They were all covers, you hadn't written anything on your own yet, but… I remember playing them over and over while I studied…"

"You see?" Mira said gently. "Most of your memories are intact, your likes and dislikes are similar if not all the same. You are Hatsune Miku."

"As a child you always wanted to try everything for yourself, always wanted to experience it all. You still do, even now. After listening to Megurine-san for months you wanted to see what it was like to be an idol." Her father put in. "You had been going through med school and the stress was building up and you wanted to try something new. We found you a manager, and he scheduled you a few shows at first. You were treating it as a hobby for nearly half a year before…" He paused a moment then went on. "You are our daughter, whatever happened to you."

Tears began to leak down Miku's cheeks. "But why do this to me?! If I was your daughter, why would you… alter me?!" She held her arms up as though they could see her implants. "I'm hideous!" Luka since again, but the same feelings were tumbling within her.

Mira's eyes welled up now too but she didn't cry outright. "It was _because_ you are our daughter. We… we couldn't let you go… not when wet could… do something about it…"

"What about me?" Luka asked quietly. "I wasn't related to you…"

Motsu answered that one, gesturing vaguely. "We were in the process of refining the Vocaloid chip to combat the souldrinkers. We needed more Vocaloids to fight them, we couldn't put it all on Miku's shoulders. Yet because of the nature of the process a living person cannot be used. I won't bore you with the medical details at this time, but the process would kill someone alive. A … cadaver is the only way, and only under certain circumstances surrounding the cause of death."

"Not everything is reversible medically, and some forms of damage or disease to the body are just too extensive." Mira added. "Your aneurysm was ideal. Easy enough to correct post mortem while leaving the body completely unharmed."

"And did I also… change… from before?" She asked, almost fearing the answer.

They both shrugged and Motsu shook his head. "I'm sorry Megurine-san, but we don't know the answer to that. We didn't know you before your death." When her gaze began to drop he amended his statement, "But as with Miku I am completely certain that the core of your personality was unchanged. You are still you."

"Why are you telling us all of this now?" Miku demanded suddenly. "If we're robots can't you just reprogram us? Why come clean now when you never did before?"

Her parents exchanged glances then shook their heads. "We're sorry, Miku. We should have." Her mother said gently. "We wanted to, but… it just… never seemed like something that could easily be done…"

"You were so proud when you found out you had… special powers." Her father amended. "It just seemed best to let you happy in that."

Miku looked away, staring down at the floor for a moment. "I remember…" she muttered, "I remember thinking how wonderful it was that I could save people, that I had this ability that I could not only use to protect others but also to spread happiness and joy through song and dance…"

"All we can ask you to understand is that sometimes, as a parent, you make the mistake of taking the easier path rather than the right one if it means the continued happiness of your child. We admit the mistake."

Miku's head came back up and she regarded her parents. In the Hatsune family, making a mistake or doing something wrong was not as important as owning up to it. The punishment for misdeeds lasted only as long as it took for the one in trouble to bend their neck and admit they were wrong, unless they didn't think they were wrong and accepted the punishment. Her eyes narrowed a little and she shook her head. "I… I don't know what to think about all of this…"

"Is…" Luka swallowed hard and shook her head. "Is Haku-chin… also… dead?"

Mira shook her head. "Medically speaking, none of your are dead, not anymore. Your hearts are beating and your brains are working. Regardless of the technology driving your vital functions, you _are_ alive."

"She is a cyborg though, just as you two are, just as the rest of the Vocaloids are." Motsue said.

"The rest…" Luka blinked and remembered the names in the file. She narrowed her eyes, "How many Vocaloids are there? How many of us really exist?"

They both hesitated before Motsu replied, "Counting Yowane-san…seven."

"You told us there were way more than that." Miku said, swiping a hand in the air. "What about the attack? What about the roof? I remember way more people up there!"

"Most of those people were our staff." Mira replied. "Your Operators when you call in, our technicians and engineers and medical assistants."

"You're programmed not to notice them unless necessary. Their interactions with you were deemed unnecessary."

"So you just let us believe we had friends here. Our Resonators!" Miku said incredulously.

"Again, a mistake." Motsu said, his voice gruff carrying his own distaste with his actions. "But the Vocaloids are imperative to combat the growing souldrinker threat, and it's not as though we can just go out killing people to make new Vocaloids whenever we want! There are specific requirements, as your mother said. Not just any cadaver will do."

"Someone else is though, aren't they?" Luka asked. "What about Haku-chin?"

Mira and Motsu traded looks again and sighed. "Yowane-san's parents are former... colleagues of ours. They made her, and we suspect they made Juon-san as well."

"They…" Miku and Luka's eyes went wide. "They… wait Haku-chin's file said something about lethal injection…!" Miku cried.

Mira shrugged, "We can only speculate. We were never able to crack her code base to do a full examination of her cybernetic implants, and cursory medical tests were all we could ever manage. We haven't been in contact with the Yowanes in a long time, we have no idea what they've done or how they've advanced the Vocaloid technology without us in the time since our falling out."

There was a long silence that followed once more, and after a time Luka looked up again. "How do we know you aren't just telling us all of this to get our guards down? How do we know you aren't going to wipe our memories as soon as we're done here?"

Motsu spread his hands in a gesture of supplication. "I don't know that I can convince you of our intent, but you have my word that from here on out we will be completely forthright with you regarding everything."

"We will only use your command interface for medical purposes and maintenance diagnostics." Mira put in. "If you want, we'll access you each individually so you can see what it looks like."

Miku and Luka looked at each other worriedly and Luka felt as though a hand had gripped her insides and was twisting. She didn't know why this made her afraid but she could see the worry reflected in Miku's eyes. "Do we… do we need to see this…?" Miku asked.

Luka reached out to squeeze her hand. "I'll do it, so you can see. You're right here, you can watch over me." Miku opened her mouth like she was going to object but then closed it again and nodded dubiously. Dropping her girlfriend's hand Luka took a deep breath then turned to the doctors. "Just so we can see."

Director Hatsune moved up beside her and Luka couldn't help but brace herself as though for a physical blow. She'd been a Vocaloid for two years, she could only guess at how many times they'd done this to her, but knowing it was going on now made her uneasy about it. The thought that she could just be switched off whenever someone else wanted to was extremely uncomfortable and disconcerting to her. Motsu leaned down to whisper in her ear, and what seemed to her like no more than a moment later she was blinking her blue eyes rapidly. She had an intense craving for chocolate truffles, and she thought it odd how that craving would pop up at the most random of times. Then she realized she'd had the same craving right after Haku had said she'd accessed her, and she wondered if her truffle craving came on every time this happened. The next thing she noticed was the Director standing beside his wife, not beside her as he had been a moment before. He may as well have teleported for all she could have known.

"This is most unusual." He was saying.

"That's not normal?" Miku asked.

Mira shook her head. "The command interface you just saw was normal enough, but she wouldn't let us do anything. It's like her programming has been altered."

"Is something wrong with me?" Luka asked, and the doctors shook their heads.

"Nothing like that, just that your access has been locked out." Mira said. She looked to Miku and asked, "Do you want to show Megurine-san?"

Miku didn't look like she wanted to at all, but she didn't hesitate in nodding acceptance. "I got to see, so should she." Mira nodded and leaned down to whisper in her daughter's ear. Miku's eyes immediately glossed over as her expression blanked out and she didn't look as though she had any emotions going on at all now, the only evidence that she had been upset a moment before showing in the tear streaks still on her cheeks, the redness around her glassy eyes.

"Keyword accepted." She intoned, her usually chime like voice a neutral monotone.

"That's…" Luka reached one arm around her tummy to clutch her opposite forearm uncomfortably. "That's how Haku-chin looked a few minutes ago."

Mira nodded. "Miku noticed the same thing."

"Is that… is that how I looked too?" She asked, already knowing the answer.

"Yes, but that is not the troubling part." Motsu replied turning to his daughter. "Miku, command access, report status."

"I'm sorry Director Hatsune," Miku intoned in reply. "You do not possess top level security access."

"Miku," Mira tried as well. "Command access, report status."

"I'm sorry Doctor Hatsune," Miku intoned once more. "You do not possess top level security access."

"She…" Luka swallowed, her stomach feeling as though it were twisting in knots watching her girlfriend like this. It was unnerving, almost scary, and she didn't like it in the least. "She isn't supposed to reject your commands, is she?"

Motsu shook his head in conformation. "No she's not, and she never has before. Neither have you, but you rejected them a moment ago as well."

Luka stared at the doctors blankly for a moment, then an instinct came over her and she looked to the girl she loved. "Miku…" She hesitated a moment but she had to try. "Command access, report status."

Miku didn't move from her rigid stance or even shift her glassy green eyed gaze but she responded. "All systems functioning nominally, Director Megurine. My next maintenance cycle is due in forty nine hours eleven minutes, no issues detected."

Luka put a hand to her mouth, her blue eyes going wide as she tried very hard not to sob. Mira looked to the pink haired girl with an odd look. "Miku tired the same thing, and you responded to her as well, but not to us. It seems both of your command functions have been locked out in some way."

"What… what do I do?" Luka asked, then shook her head and changed what she'd said before they could answer. "Put her back, I can't stand seeing her like this."

Motsu shrugged and made a vague gesture with his hand. "She won't respond to our commands, you have to tell her to resume normal function."

Luka didn't wait on more explanation than that, "Miku, resume normal function." Miku let out a little squeaking hiccup and blinked several times as her expression returned to normal, putting a hand to her mouth to cover it. She was so cute… even now, even like this, Luka couldn't help but admire her. Everything about Hatsune Miku was cute… she rushed to her and threw her arms around her love. Miku responded warmly, fervently, and they clung to each other for a moment. She couldn't think of anything meaningful to say so she just whispered in Miku's ear, "I love you."

"I love you." Came the twintailed girl's immediate reply, which made Luka's insides warm a bit, a small patch of heat in the middle of the cold sorrow. After a moment Miku added, "Whatever else… that's real." Luka nodded against her shoulder and pressed her face to the other girl's neck. "That _has_ to be real." Miku whispered.

"It's real." Luka agreed.

Miku pulled back a little bit. "What… do we do now?"

Luka took a deep breath, filling her lungs and forcing her ample chest to press against Miku unintentionally, but she felt calmer. She let her protective instincts take back over and pulled away from her girlfriend, turning to the doctors. "I think Haku-chin did something to us earlier, she accessed us, and said something about locking us out."

"Yowane-san…?" Motsue blinked.

Luka nodded to them. "She must have made it so only we can access each other, but… I refuse to release our... command interface." She stumbled only a little bit on that, the words sounding almost foreign to her ears, but she was in her element once more. Decisive, calm, ready, protective. It was reassuring in and of itself.

"But if we don't have access to you, we can't-" Mira began but Luka cut her off, not unkindly, but firmly.

"That's right, you can't. I won't be a puppet anymore. You will have to talk with us, like people. Ask us. Ask us to be Vocaloids, and we will agree." She felt Miku nodding emphatically beside her.

They were silent for a long few moments then Motsu nodded. "Miku, Megurine-san, will you please work for us?" He paused, then shook his head. "No, that's not right. Will you please work _with_ us, against the souldrinkers?"

Luka nodded along with Miku. "Yes, we will." They said together, and Miku added, "But first, we need you to give us all the details."


	21. Vocaloid Academy Chapter 21

Haku watched the little blonde short haired girl standing stock still in the opposite corner of the room from her with a curious eye. It was the same little girl she'd rescued in the alley the night she'd fought so hard to defend Miku from the souldrinker attack. Either she or a blonde boy that looked similar to her were always in the room, and at first Haku had thought they were supposed to a form of guard to keep her in here, but that had seemed unlikely since she couldn't force herself to leave anyway. The room had both a window and a door which were not locked that she should have been able to simply leave through at any time but she'd found she couldn't make her legs work if her intent was to escape. She supposed the two kids were prisoners like she was, and had tried talking with both several times in the past few days since she'd woken up here but neither ever responded to her beyond a look or head tilt.

If she wasn't trying to get away Haku had found she could move around the room, and she'd made circuits a few times to inspect her surroundings. It was a personal office room of some sort with a desk and chair and space for a laptop on one end, a faded square spot showing where one used to sit, a row of filing cabinets against one wall that clanged emptily when she'd tapped on them, two love seats against another wall, and an absolutely hideous yet obviously expensive carpet in the center of the floor. Various landscape pictures were hung around the room as well, and while pretty enough, weren't exactly eye catching. Idly she walked over to the door, paused a moment, then reached a hand out to the handle. Her slim fingers wrapped around it and she let her wrist relax allowing the weight of her arm to rest her hand on it. She stood there for several moments trying to will her fingers to twist the latch, trying to make her arm pull the door open. A minute went by, two minutes, five. With a sigh she let her arm drop back to her side once more. She turned around to find the little girl watching her intently from her corner. Haku took two steps away from the door and stood watching her back. She knew it was useless, but she had to try again. There was really little else to do at any rate; the room was bare and Kiku had taken her phone.

"Have you tried opening the door?" The little girl tilted her head a bare few centimeters but made no reply. "I can't seem to do it. I've tried the window to." The blonde girl blinked at her. Haku changed the subject. "Your name is Rin, isn't it? I think that's what you said. We met before right?" The cant to Rin's neck increased another centimeter or two. Haku sighed again. Turning her gaze to sweep the room once more she set her mind back to analyzing the events leading up to now. She'd gone over the series of things that had happened any number of times in her mind, but the more time she spent stuck in this room the more she found if she failed to keep her mind busy the despair would roll in all too quickly. She was a cyborg… her girlfriends were cyborgs. The thought was a terrifying one, and had shaken her to her core when she'd found out in the fourth sublevel of the Vocaloid Compound, but she didn't know for sure how she'd gone from there to wherever this was. She remembered making the discovery, remembered being afraid that someone could potentially completely wipe her from the memory of the the two women she loved more than life itself, and she remembered making sure that couldn't ever happen. Then... nothing. Her phone had rang, it had been her father. She'd tried to resist answering it, but her thumb had seemed to move on it's own, then she'd blinked and she'd been here. She was missing something, some small detail, she knew she was. If she could just catch it she knew she'd understand what was going on.

A noise outside the door brought her head around, her snowy white cascading ponytail swirling about her as she spun. The handle turned and the door swung open to admit Kiku, the darkly beautiful redhead leading the young blond haired boy who looked remarkably similar to Rin in height and age. The boy went quietly over to stand beside Rin, taking the same stance and posture and watching Haku as well. Kiku turned to smile at her and Haku couldn't help but think it looked slightly unnatural on her, like her mouth wasn't used to making pleasant expressions. "Yowane-san. I'm so happy to see you." She said as though she hadn't been keeping Haku in this room for days. "Come, walk with me." She turned to head for the door and Haku found herself moving without actually wanting to. The two blond kids stayed put, regarding her with flat expressions until Kiku pulled the door closed cutting them off from view.

Kiku led her down a short hallway passed the single occurrence bathroom she'd been escorted to periodically which was the extent of the building she had thus far seen and turned down another hallway which led passed a tiny kitchenette to an elevator which sat opposite a door to the rest of the building. Haku could just pick up the faint hints of engine oil and gasoline coming through the gaps of the door frame. The redhead pushed the call button and once the doors had wooshed open and they had stepped inside Kiku produced a chipped ID badge not too dissimilar from the one the Vocaloids used and slid it into a crack in the button panel at a point that didn't look any different from the rest of the seams where panel met trim or edging. There was a soft beep however and a moment later she withdrew the badge and the portion of the panel which she had slid her badge in beside popped open. Haku blinked staring at the revealed section with additional buttons, finding that the new ones all had "S" by their numbers indicating sublevels where as none of the main panel had them. The subtlety and extra effort involved in creating such a hidden panel intrigued Haku but she didn't say anything about it, not wanting to speak with Kiku anymore than she really had to. Kiku pressed a button and they began to descend, the elevator humming faintly as it lowered them beneath ground level. Kiku turned her head to look at Haku. "You seem… well, Yowane-san."

"Well?" Haku's silvery voice was a little strained, but she did her best not to let too much emotion through, drawing hard on the outer serenity she'd developed over these past months. "I've been abducted, kept in a room against my will for days, fed and walked to the restroom like an animal, I haven't been able to bathe or change my clothing, I haven't seen my… I haven't seen Luka-chin or Miku-chin, and on top of it all, I've lost my butterfly bow." She shifted her head a little bit to let her loose snowy white strands of hair shift behind her by way of demonstration. She wasn't sure when she'd lost it, it had simply been gone when she'd 'woken' in that office, along with her phone and security badge. She was reasonably sure Kiku had taken her phone and badge, but why would she take her bow? Haku kept her face smooth, not letting on to how close she'd come to saying 'girlfriends' a moment ago.

Kiku eyed her up and down for a moment or two before tilting her head. "Would you like a bath?"

"I'd like to go home." Haku retorted, trying not to snap.

A faint smile quirked the corners of Kiku's mouth and she said in an even tone, "Oh Yowane-san… you _are_ home."

"I… what?" Haku blinked her red eyes, and at that moment the elevator stopped moving and the doors opened to admit them onto the floor of what looked like a great big laboratory. The walls were all grey and the floor was black tile, and the strip lights were more of a blue than a white but illuminated just as well. There were exam tables with computer terminals and instrument trays everywhere and a huge network terminal at the far end of the room. Two doors on the walls to the left and right led into corridors that went further into the sublevel they were on, and all in all Haku thought this looked very similar to the medical sublevel of the Vocaloid Compound she'd seen the other day with her girlfriends. Haku looked around slowly, and images began to flash through her mind, pieces of dreams she'd had months and months ago, or what she'd thought were dreams, where she'd wake up in a cold lab like this one, naked and frightened to be led off to other places with futuristic looking machinery where she'd be hooked up and tested and probed and prodded in various ways. She'd thought the dreams of Miku's parents more recently had been dreams too but they'd turned out to be real from what she'd seen the other day, and suddenly she knew. She knew deep within herself even before she turned to stare at Kiku. "I was…" She swallowed hard and forced the words out. "I died here… didn't I?"

The darkly beautiful woman shook her head and looked around. "No, Yowane-san." She said, her voice full of heavy meaning, her tone very nearly reverent. "We didn't die here." She lifted a hand to gesture expansively at the lab. "We were born here.

"Born…?" Haku continued staring around at the huge lab while the images whirled through her mind. She reached up to put a hand to the side of her head, though it didn't hurt. She lost herself for a time in the dreams… no… the memories. Her creation process…? She turned to look at Kiku, her captor's red-orange eyes on her. "What do you mean… "we" were born here…?"

Kiku took a step toward Haku so they were within arm's reach and took up Haku's free hand in her own. "We were made for each other, Yowane-san. You were the first, and after you, mother and father made me."

Haku couldn't keep her jaw from dropping at that. "We're… sisters…?"

Kiku tilted her head a bit, started to nod, then shook her head instead. "In a way… perhaps… but no, that's not exactly it. We were made with similar coding templates, the first of our kind."

"The first Vocaloids…?" This was all coming too fast, Haku couldn't process it.

Kiku shook her head again. "No, we're not Vocaloids. _They_ are Vocaloids." She said the word with contempt but clearly was talking about Miku and Luka. "We are something different, something better, something _more_."

Haku gently but firmly pulled her hand out of Kiku's grasp and backed away a step. "You'd better… start from the beginning. Explain this… this whole thing."

Kiku stared at her blankly for a long moment before allowing her hands to drop back to her sides once more, the lace covering them for a moment and for the first time Haku noticed that her all black dress was textured to look like it was covered in thorns. She tilted her head then turned to walk down the center of the room, toward the network console. She paused for a moment and her face contorted in what looked like pain; she winced and put a hand to her head and leaned over for a moment. Haku blinked not sure if she cared enough to try to help but Kiku recovered and moved up to the giant screen. "Everything I know I learned from this network. Mother and father were not pleased that I had hacked it, but I wanted answers and they were not giving them to me." Haku followed her to the massive terminal and Kiku laid a hand on it but didn't activate it. "A long time ago, I'm not sure when, they were partners with two other doctors. The four of them worked at developing what's now known as the Vocaloid Chip." She gestured at Haku's head, then at her own. "It attaches inside the brain with a cranial implant and acts as the main processor for the Vocaloid Cyborg Units, or the Vocaloids."

"Vocaloid Cyborgs…" Haku murmured, recalling what she'd read about Miku and Luka being turned into cyborgs in Director Hatsune's files the other day.

"The chip itself is not all of course." Kiku went on, her fingernails beginning to tap against the console. "We have a power core embedded within our chests which provide us with all the energy we could ever need, a miniature reactor of some sort, I didn't understands the details of what kind exactly. The processor in our brains and the reactor in our chests power us, provide us with the life that was denied us."

"Then…" Haku's hand went to her chest as though she could feel it within herself, but she couldn't. She had to suppress an urge to shift side to side or twist around to try to feel it inside body. "Then we really are… dead…?"

Kiku shook her head at that question. "No, not anymore. The process would kill a living human, but that's why it's done post mortem."

"But they keeping us alive." Haku argued, red eyes locking on red-range. "If they failed, we'd be dead."

"And how is that any different from saying if a human's heart failed they'd be dead?" Kiku asked mildly, apparently not perturbed by this in the least bit. "How is that any different than saying if you suffered a damaging enough blow to the head you would die?" Haku didn't have an answer to that, at least not one she could put voice to that moment. It didn't feel right to her, but she wasn't sure how yet, but Kiku apparently took her silence for agreement and moved on. "The two together control our bodies and the implants throughout them. With our Vocaloid Reacator Cores, or V-Cores as mother and father termed it in their files, we can generate sonic energy in various ways using nanite technology and micro circuitry threaded throughout our limbs."

"Like the music?" Haku wanted to know.

"The music." Kiku sneered. "Is that the part that impresses you most?" She lifted the hand off the console and gestured at it before putting it back down again. "Infact no, the music was an unintended side effect of the process, according to the files. The intent was the energy waves, the sound vibrations, the sonic casting. The ability to harness and focus sonic power to destructive intent."

"Then…" Haku blinked in surprise. "Then we're supposed to be weapons…?"

Kiku smiled and nodded. "Now you see. Mother and father wanted us to be powerful tools for their designs."

Haku shook her head in denial. "No. No I'm not a weapon. I'm not!"

Kiku let out a lilting chuckle. "You're so naive, Yowane-san, but you will understand more in time. You cannot deny your darker impulses."

"What darker impulses?" Haku glared. "I have no darker impulses."

"Perhaps you have not had them yet." Kiku mused softly and set her fingernails down to tap on the console once more. "But your programming was far more theoretical than my own was. I awoke with my energy draining abilities intact, but it seems perhaps yours are gated?" She tilted her head, obviously expecting Haku to know what she was talking about, but she just stared at the darkly beautiful woman blankly for a moment.

"Energy draining…" Haku murmured, then her eyes went wide once more. "You mean the souldrinker's abilities."

Kiku made a face, "If that's how you want to think of it, yes."

"I don't have souldrinker abilities!" Haku protested.

"Oh yes you do, we both do." Kiku retorted. "And you've already used them too."

"I have not!" Haku objected by reflex, then paused and couldn't stop herself from asking, "... when?"

"When we fought." Kiku said, a knowing smirk spreading over her lips.

"I did?" She replied doubtfully.

"Oh not against me." Kiku said, gesturing vaguely in the air with her other hand. "When you cleansed those two Vocaloids you're so foolishly fond of." Haku opened her mouth to object but Kiku kept talking without giving her a chance to cut in. "I was draining them of their energies, and when you knocked me back you drained my drain, so to speak. You drained away the effect I was using, which itself was a drain."

Haku blinked at her. "But I… I was just healing them… of your… curse…?"

Kiku laughed outright at that. "Curse? What do I look like, some sort of witch?" Haku bit her lower lip to keep from answering that and Kiku went on. "This isn't magic, Yowane-san, it's technology. We were created, we were programmed, and we operate. It's science, not mysticism."

"But why create us at all? Why make cyborgs out of corpses?!" Haku asked in a sudden fit of upset. "I don't even remember dying! Mom and dad were never around, and I basically lived and fended for myself! I went to school, I learned things on my own!"

"They made us to take over the world ofcourse." Kiku said mildly, stopping Haku in her tracks. "They had an ability others lacked, and they will use it however they want to take over." The ridiculousness of the statement seemed lost on Kiku, but either way the answer was too easy to accept and Haku thought there must be more to it than that. "As to your death, I don't know, I wasn't there. But what does it matter? Mother and father made us for each other. No one else has the draining abilities we do. You were a prototype, we're hybrids, and we belong together."

"If that's true, then why do you call me Yowane-san?" Haku asked spitefully. "If that's true then why do I feel nothing but nauseated whenever I see you?" Kiku blinked, her own eyes going wide this time at the harsh words as though honestly surprised by them. "The first time I ever saw you you attacked me! And you attacked me again later!"

"I call you Yowane-san because you haven't given me permission to do otherwise yet, and it would be rude to be too familiar until you do." She said, the pure truth of the social nicety seeming to stick out amidst the craziness of the rest of the situation. "And I attacked that Vocaloid you were with, not you." Kiku said defensively, slashing at the air with the hand she had gestured with a moment before. "And I didn't attack you the second time either, I helped you release some of your gates."

"Gates? What gates?" Haku asked.

Kiku gestured up at the terminal behind herself. "The Vocaloid Chip takes over the majority of the brain's functions in order to regulate the body." She said, her expression honestly still looking a little hurt at Haku's earlier words. "I'm not a doctor or scientist so I can't say exactly how it works, you would have to ask mother and father, but when a human dies the electrical signals that fire in the brain between synapses that make it function cease to be. The Vocaloid Chip, powered by the V-Core and regulated by it's programming and nano technology, imitates those electrical impulses in a way, or at least provides them based on very specific parameters. Thus can the heart resume beating, the lungs resume breathing, and also thus are our powers granted." She lifted her arm and stretched her leg as though showing off the functionality.

"So it takes over just like that?" Haku asked.

"Not exactly." The redhead replied. "As with any major medical procedure the body has to have time to heal and adapt afterward, and likewise that nanotechnology requires time to shape itself and it's programming to the host. Every person's brain is a little different, has developed a little differently, has differently memories and experiences. The same chip could be put in two different people and their developments would go differently, would take different amounts of time."

"That's why Vocaloids gain power over time with training and practice." Haku said as the pieces fit together. "That's why I've had trouble controlling my power ever since you…" she trailed off but she could see it now, but Kiku spelled it out for her anyway.

"That's why when I forced your programming to become active all at once your body effectively shut down as it had to adapt to how the nanites were reforming connections in your cells and your implants to accommodate the new programming."

"And that's why I still can't always control my abilities, because I'm still learning how, still developing that muscle memory, as it were." Kiku nodded and Haku's red eyes narrowed in a glare. "You almost killed me."

Kiku shrugged but it wasn't an apologetic gesture. "I didn't though. I couldn't very well leave you the weak pathetic mess you were, I had to make you worthy of me, because we were made for each other. And I thought if I brought forth all your power, even the draining abilities, the Vocaloids might reject you and you would have nowhere to go but back to me."

"They… they wouldn't reject me!" Haku winced at the pleading note in her own voice. "Just because…!" She paused as the thought struck her. "Because I…"

"Have the power of a souldrinker?" Kiku asked mildly. "Are you so sure of that? They kill souldrinkers, afterall. They imprisoned me, took away my freedom, locked me in a cage to study. Is that what you want?"

"They… they wouldn't...!" Her emotions were beginning to run rampant now and Haku felt her serenity evaporating as the mental image off being locked in a cell burst unbidden into her mind.

"Oh? How can you be so sure?" Kiku asked with a raised eyebrow and a mocking tone.

"They… They love me…" Haku whispered trying hard to keep the bad thoughts out.

"They love you? Are you certain? How do you know?"

"They… said they do…"

"They said they do." Kiku sneered, the mockery thicker than every now. "They may love each other, I can't really say for sure, but how can they possibly love you?"

Haku didn't want to talk like this, didn't want to give voice to the doubts, but knowing was better… wasn't it? "Why… not…?"

Kiku held up a finger as she began ticking off points. "They saved your life, yes? When someone saves another person it creates a sort of subconscious debt. Can you honestly say you don't feel like you owe them anything?" Haku opened her mouth to object. Kiku raised a questioning eyebrow, and Haku closed her mouth. "They're able to take advantage of that." A second finger went up as she kept on with her litany. "They're absolutely gorgeous creatures aren't they?" She didn't pause her flow of words for Haku's nod. "They're graceful and beautiful and feminine in every way. For one who thinks herself plain at best, do you truly think yourself a match for them?" Haku's face fell and she leaned forward slightly, pressing one hand to her middle feeling nauseous, but Kiku wasn't done as she added a third finger. "They're idols, Yowane-san. The music world is absolutely filled with pretty people and tasty distractions. They could have anyone they want. You're a diversion for them, no more."

Hai spun around as tears sprang to her eyes. She didn't want to hear this, but… the points rang of truth in her ears, sounded of real problems she'd thought about before. She didn't want Kiku to see her cry and she felt the urge to run but she didn't have anywhere to go. Where would she hide? The elevator needed a keycard to operate and she had none. Where could she go? She felt a had on her shoulder and flinched away from the attempt at a tender touch. "Don't…" was all she could choke out passed the tears.

"Yowane-san… forget them." Kiku said in a tone she probably thought was gentle but came across to Haku as soft yet still cruel. "We are all that we need. We don't even need mother and father anymore. We can access each other, perform our own maintenance and even design our own upgrades. We were made for each other. We-"

Haku's mind was reeling from all of these revelations and she cut the other girl off. "Stop saying that! This… is crazy!" She blurted out. She had to change the subject, she didn't want to think about… about... "I've never even heard of the government having this sort of technology, let alone private citizens. How are we supposed to do it ourselves?"

"Oh they have it." Kiku said. "They bought it from mother and father." Haku spun back around to stare at her in shock and Kiku just smirked. "Where do you think all of their money comes from?"

"They work for the government?!" Haku asked incredulously.

"Well… no that's too strong a term." Kiku mused, tapping her lips with a finger. "'Do odd jobs for now and then' would be much more appropriate, though I believe even that would be stretching it."

All she could do was stare art the darkly beautiful woman for long moments before turning to look away again. She was shaken to her core buy all off this, her stomach felt like it was tying itself in knots. She loved Miku and Luka more than anything, but if they really saw her like that… they had been acting strange lately… could they be… bored of her…? She choked back a sob, still refusing to let Kiku see her cry. She turned to the giant network terminal and said, "I want to see what you saw…"

Kiku looked at her for a long few moments before giving a small nod. She woke the screen up and hit a few keys on the terminal to log it in, then turned back to b Haku. "I'll leave you to look through it. Mother and father won't be here for a few more days yet, as they're still over seas."

Haku blinked. "They're coming here?" The other girl nodded. "Why?"

"You've been with the enemy for a long while now, they want to see what you've downloaded, what you've learned."

"What I…?" Haku stared at her. "What do you mean, what I've downloaded?"

Kiku tilted her head. "You really don't know?" When Haku only stared at her the redhead sighed. "I suggest you look over your own programming first then. That's where I started. I don't fully understand the coding principals, but I knew enough to change it to keep myself ' awake' when accessed." She turned to walk away, then paused to look back over her shoulder. "This level of the laboratory has a sanitation chamber and a locker room, if you wish to clean up." She gestured toward one of the doors with a vague wave of one hand then turned away once more, but then looked back yet again as Haku stopped her with a question.

"Who are the little girl and boy upstairs?"

Kiku was silent for so long Haku thought she wasn't going to answer, but after a time the darkly beautiful woman murmured, "If mother and father can experiment… so can I…" And with that she stepped into the elevator, pushed the door close button, and ascended out of sight. As soon as Kiku was give Haku sank into a chair, buried her face in her hands and began to cry. Her shoulders shook and she leaned over the console and let the floodgates open. She couldn't lose Miku or Luka, not now, not after everything that had happened. If she did she thought she might actually die. What could she do? Did they really think of her as an idle diversion? They'd never said anything like that that she could remember, but surely if that's how you really saw someone you wouldn't actually tell them that. They were famous idols, they could literally be with anyone they wanted, could have whoever they wanted. What could they possibly see in a plain nobody like her? The thought that she really was beautiful never crossed her mind, nor did the fact that she was an idol now too.

After her tears finally stopped Haku sat just starting at the screen for a long time before finally beginning to look through the files on the computer, as much to distract herself as anything. Everything was here, similar records on her… construction… as she'd seen about Miku and Luka at the Vocaloid Compound. Schematics for her Vocaloid Chip and V-Core, which were termed "Mark 4" in the diagrams, as well as a list of components used in the design of her sonic implants. There was no listing of the design for her girlfriends' constructions to compare with, but from what she remembered she could see the differences if not fully understand them… and she could see how the energy draining effect worked too. It wasn't separate implants at all, simply that her sonic conductors were capable of bi-directional throughput that allowed for input or output. It was extremely surreal, looking over her own post mortem reports and cyborg conversion procedure. More than once she became overwhelmed by the images in the photo journal showing the operations and had to turn away until she could get herself under control again. At times it was all she could do to keep from breaking down into tears again or keep from throwing up. She kept thinking back to Luka and Miku's reports and wondered why she could recall them so clearly when she'd only had time to glance at them briefly before setting them to download into her thumb drive.

Abruptly what Kiku had said seemed to click into place. Her own programming… her own maintenance… she'd had dreams about Miku's parents prodding at her... no, working on her, for months now and had found out they had been real. Maybe she could work on herself…? The thought terrified her, but… how was she doing all this? She'd always had an eerily good memory but it had seemed even better the past year or so. Maybe… she began looking through her implants listings, pulling up the log document of what had been done to her so she could see it while looking at pictures, and there it was. Her cranial implant was augmenting her brain capacity, increasing signal speed and memory retention. Her already formidable mind had been turned into a supercomputer for all intents and purposes. She had special programming in her head now that let her hack almost anything, the records here talked about specially designed protocols to allow her to interface with every known GUI and data port there was. In a way that made her feel a little betrayed. She'd thought she'd taught herself to code, but in reality it was a hacking program built into her. Then she blinked in surprise at what she saw next; a diagram of a wireless reliever specially designed to connect to any type of Bluetooth or WiFi signal. She stared at it in absolute shock. Her thumb drive popped into her mind, how it always worked for her, but never had for Miku when she'd tried. Haku felt a chill run up her spine. It wasn't a flash drive at all, it was a wireless dongle. She'd been connecting her brain directly to other computers with it this entire time, had been opening the files stored inside her own mind. Which meant… everything she'd ever downloaded and saved was literally in her head right now…

Haku was so overwhelmed by the enormity of these revelations she was discovering that she sat back in the chair for a moment and closed her eyes, taking slow deep breaths to steady her nerves. After a few minutes she started thinking about what this all meant, about her cybernetic brain and how it connected to computers, her interfacing capabilities. If she had all these files in her mind, couldn't she access them when she wanted? Keeping her eyes closed she tried to visualize in her head the way a computer screen would look if she were clicking on a folder, trying to click open a document to look at that she'd set to download in the Vocaloid Database. It didn't do anything, and she let out a sigh of frustration. She tried again, and again, with no results. She was flying blind with this, not sure if this would even do anything, but after a few failed attempts she changed her little experiment to a connection attempt. If she had Bluetooth and WiFi capabilities, shouldn't she be able to interface with a computer as easily as she could with her flash drive? She might not have been consciously aware that's what she'd been doing all these months, but she _had_ been using it thinking it was a thumb drive, so clearly she had _some_ degree of control over it. She tried again with the vision in her mind, but this time tried to imagine looking at a wireless connection window. That did… something. She felt a slight tugging within herself, but it wasn't a physical sensation, more like she was sensing something pulling at her in the air. The mental image itself wasn't helping, so she blanked her mind's eye and focused on the tugging feeling, tried to follow it like a current, let herself be captivated by it, let it sweep her along. Abruptly an image burst into her mind like a data stream floating in the air and her red eyes popped open. She could see it, really _see_ it, like little mosaic pixelated data hanging in the air. It was a wireless signal, she just knew it. Despite her earlier fear and queeziness at all of this she found she was actually giddy with the idea of seeing a datastream. She reached a hand out and up towards it but of course there was nothing to physically touch and her fingers slid right through the stream as if it weren't there. But it was, she could see it. Now how to tap it? In a regular computer of course you just clicked the network icon, but that's not how the connection _actually_ occurred, that was just a UI graphical representation. The actual transfer of data was through a computer's processor in the form of bits she knew, a series of electrical impulses firing hundreds of times per second to operate hardware managed by a connection protocol. She had the world's most powerful wireless connector built into her head, she'd seen it. Her processor was this Vocaloid Chip, also in her head. How to visualize cybernetic implants working? Determinedly she set her jaw as she thought about this; if she was a cyborg, then so be it, it was time to start using that to her advantage.

She thought on data transfer rates and bits and network protocols for a long while, minutes seeming to slip by her just like the data stream in the air that she continued watching, but she got nowhere with it. Sighing in frustration once more she reached out with her hand again, knowing there was nothing to touch. She rolled her wrist as though trying to wrap her hand around a rope or string, and the mental imagery of twisting her wrist to take hold of the stream tugged harder at that ethereal feeling permeating her. It wasn't really what was happening of course, she thought it must just be how the human part of her mind was interpreting things. Blinking she slowly and deliberately put her arm down, then imagined herself taking hold of the data stream, and just like that her mind exploded with information. Her red eyes were as round as they would go and she slammed back into her chair and gripped the edges of it feeling as though she had been plunged in to a pool of cold water all at once. She had to force her eyes to close, then squeezed them shut trying to cut off the flow of data suddenly feeding directly into her mind but that didn't help at all. The rush of bits flying through her brain faster than she could consciously process them was overwhelming and a dim part of her mind realized she was being too mundane about this, trying to consciously sift and sort a data stream that was supposed to be processed in background applications in computers, sitting in stasis essentially until clicked to open.

Just as she felt like she was going to drown in the flood of information she imagined the data stream as a still pool, and all at once it stopped. She was _connected_ , she could feel it, but it as no longer coming at her all at once since she was no longer drawing on it. Letting out a breath of relief she paused for a moment to consider it. She felt like she was muddling through all of this, but now that she was connected it was like having the information right in her head without the actual physical act of looking at a computer screen. She was connected to Viroid Network, that of the laboratory she was in. Her mother and father's lab, she reminded herself. She could see all of the files, sift through them, sort them, tell what everything was just as though she were browsing through network files, and she could see a separate and distinct entity that was her own mind's files as well, could access them now that she knew what she was doing too, or at least now that she'd taken this first step. She let them fly through her mind, processing them, absorbing them, seeing what pertained to her or Kiku or anything relevant to her situation. Documents flashed passed before her mind's eye, flying by faster and faster the more comfortable she became with this, and she found that she was absolutely thrilled at what she was doing. This was actually rather fun! At one point she glanced up at the network monitor before and saw it sitting there completely inert, nothing showing on screen at all. Well that made sense when she thought about it, she wasn't actually using it, she was connected by herself. Just her. She was her own computer now.

Abruptly Haku realized that if she was connected remotely to this network then she didn't need to stay sitting here in this chair. Glancing around at the sterile lab with it's dark coloring she was struck by how creepy it really was and stood up not wanting to remain here any longer. Now that she was connected it took but the ease of a thought to begin downloading her files, yet even so the feeling was an odd one, having a direct data link to your brain. Still no physical sensation to it, it was just… strange. She walked over to the elevator they had come down earlier but as Kiku had said it required a security key. The darkly beautiful woman had also said there was a locker room. She decided she could take a few minutes to get cleaned up; it wasn't as if she were going to get any more kidnapped than she already was in the meantime, and a search the locker room might prove useful. Turning she went down the hallway Kiku had indicated earlier and began searching doors. They were all empty exam rooms so far as she could tell, set up the same way as the open tables in the main lab terminals and instrument trays. The hallway ran the length of half a dozen of these rooms before hitting a tee. To the right Haku could see a few more doors to either side and a service stairwell at the end, and to the left she could see another tee after a further stretch of hall. One she reached that tree she discovered another left turn took her down a further stretch of hall to dead end at a set of bathrooms opposite each other with a locker room at the end. She walked passed the men and women's rooms into the locker area and looked around. There were only a couple rows of lockers, and Haku was struck by how much smaller this place as a whole was compared with the Vocaloid facilities, but she supposed her parents had less staff to worry about.

A search of the lockers revealed a few with basic clothes in them; black and grey and blue shirts and pants that looked to Haku like nothing so much as coverings for moving specimens around. She let out a little shiver but she really did need to change. Picking a set of black coverings (she couldn't make herself think of them as clothes afterall) she also found a rack in the corner with basic soaps and shampoos, the kind of things you might find in a hospital. Disappointed once more she picked up a soap… disc? … and a small bottle of shampoo, then blinked in surprise as she pulled open a drawer in a stand by the rack next while she was looking around and found a couple of large plastic hair clips and two hairbrushes. By far the best things she'd discovered in this room she happily picked out a purple clip with glittery sparkles and a soft bristled if plain black brush and tucked them into her coverings. She located a couple of towels then left the locker room and went into the women's bath. With the entire lab deserted she didn't think it really mattered which she used but habit made her go where she should. She stripped off the clothes she'd been wearing for… how long had it been? Three days? Four? She didn't even look, they were so gross by now. She just stuffed them all into a cubby then took a few minutes to run the brush through her hair to work out any tangles before stepping through into the wash area. The bathroom wasn't as large or lavish as the one at the Vocaloid Compound and she found she was again disappointed; she'd grown accustomed to the big luxurious bathtub and wash area she'd been using these past months.

Either way though, the water was hot and she felt immensely relieved to sluice the grime from herself, imagining she was removing an actual layer of dirt from her skin though nothing like that was visible. Thinking about her current circumstances, deep underground right now in a small personal laboratory, she could see the appeal of the privacy, of having this whole place to herself. That thought however was followed immediately by another more sobering one; she wasn't alone… She tried to push that notion aside for the time being to focus on her bath. Once she'd soaped and lathered and rinsed every nook and cranny of herself she did her hair, getting it wet then working the bland shampoo into it carefully with smooth practices motions, careful not to pull to hard on any one lock, wishing the entire time for a nice lavender or floral scented blend. She stared at the snowy white stands as she delicately worked through them and let herself feel a moment of surprise at her own adaptability. She'd had dark hair for two decades, had treasured her hair and nurtured it, cared for it and kept it glossy, and now she'd had white hair for only a few months and she was already… well, "used to it" wasn't right, but… she didn't think she resented it anymore. Everyone seemed to think the white suited her, and she had to admit to herself that she did like being a little different than most other people. Even her red eyes in the mirror didn't make her cringe anymore.

Once she'd finished washing herself and felt clean for the first time in days she rinsed off one final time then stood, gathered the things she'd brought in, set them on a stand near the door, then went deeper into the bathroom to find a tub. She turned the hot water on and got in, settling into the tub and letting the steaming water cover her naked form even as it filled the tub. She loved the way hot water felt and she let out a sigh as she leaned back. She angled her head back against the rim of the tub and looked up toward the ceiling. She could still see the data stream flowing through the air, and she took a moment to marvel at the fact that she had never seen it before finding out what she was. She'd been around any number of different kinds of wireless connections in her life and especially in recent history, how had she never noticed? She supposed the answer to that must lay in her programming. The notes her parents had made that she'd been reading on her construction earlier hadn't really gone into detail about her actual code, just mentioned bits of programming they had developed for her. That thought led to another, and she found herself wondering if she might be able to alter her own code. Kiku had implied as much, but wouldn't she need to be in a diagnostic mode to manage it? She'd had to do that with Luka and Miku before she'd woken up here. They hadn't seemed aware of the fact that she'd done it after they'd come back to themselves either.

Abruptly Haku sat up in the tub with a splash of the water, sloshing some over the rim which made her realize the tub had filled while she'd been thinking. Abscently twisting the knob to shut the water off she blinked at nothing as she realized the piece she'd been missing earlier. It was all so painfully clear now. She'd woken up here and hadn't known how she'd gotten here. Luka and Miku had moved across the room when she'd accessed them and hadn't known how they'd moved either. Somehow she'd been accessed in the Vocaloid Compound before she left. How? Her access keyword… who? She squinted her red eyes, concentrating on remembering. She'd accessed her girlfriends, they'd been surprised, they'd heard Miku's parents coming down the hall, she'd turned back to the console to retrieve her thumb drive, and… then her phone had rang. It had been her father. She hadn't been able to stop her thumb from accepting the call. Her red eyes went wide as she realized what was going on. She hadn't wanted to answer the call, but she hadn't been able to to keep from doing so when she saw it was her father. She must have a subroutine that forced her to obey them, to heed them, and to always respond to them. That had to be it. He must have accessed her and told her to come here with Kiku, and that was why she couldn't leave now despite the doors being unlocked and having no guards. Somehow… somehow she had to get rid of that protocol. She had no free will otherwise! That thought was the first truly terrifying one she'd had since she'd started going over all of this, analyzing and dissecting her situation in her mind. She was no better than a tool, a slave in her parent's little world here. She had to get out. She had to! But how…?

Slowly she eased back in the tub once more and forced herself to breathe evenly. Nothing good would come from panicking, but she felt the anxiety on the edge of her self control now threatening to overwhelm her. Seeing her own death images had been surreal and scary, discovering she was actually a cyborg had been, and still was, disconcerting yet intriguing at the same time, maybe even a little fun in some ways. But knowing she had an of switch, knowing someone could simply take control of her whenever they wanted and make her do whatever they wished, knowing that the power existed over her to completely deprive her of her own free will, of everything that was _her_ … that fact absolutely terrified her. She could feel that panic building ever higher, could feel her chest tightening and her lungs struggling to expand to bring in air. For a long time she simply sat in the tub and forced her chest to rise and fall evenly, focused on the feel of air moving through her lungs. Whatever else happened, whatever came off all of this, she would take control of herself back. She would keep her own free will, and she would find a way to get out of here and back to the two women she loved. No matter what! And the first step was to figure out how to access her own code, to rewrite her own programming. She wasn't sure how, but it had to be possible. Her parents can't have planned to let her ever find out about all is this, they couldn't have planned for every possible contingency. She would find a way, she would turn their own weapon against them.

Feeling the need to figure this out more than she wanted to soak she stood up out of the tub and switched the plug to drain, wrapped herself with the towels and dried off so she wasn't dripping, then went back into the changing area. Grimacing at the coverings she'd found she pulled on the very bland medical panties, then found to her dismay that the bra didn't fit when she slid it up her arms. Sighing she tossed the thing back into the cubby then retrieved her old one and put it back on. She didn't like wearing dirty clothes, but her breasts were just too big not to. Once she had the medical clothes on over those she pulled the plain socks on and then her shoes, then brushed out her hair, a much quicker job than she would usually give her snowy locks but she was eager to get started now that she had a goal in mind. She trapped her hair back behind her head with the glittery purple hair clip then proceeded to make her way back down the hallways she's come down. Once back in the main lab area she chose a terminal near the main network console and pulled a chair overt to it. She might have to use the diagnostic computers but she refused to stretch out on those tables with their strap downs. The idea sent shivers up her spine. She sat down in the chair at the terminal, shook the mouse to wake it up, then hesitated a moment before reaching out to take hold of the bundle of cables wrapped neatly beside the etched keyboard. It was all identical to the equipment at the Vocaloid Compound, and she found herself hesitating again. Then she reached a hand back and pulled her long flowing white ponytail forward over her left shoulder with one hand then reached back with it and ran her fingertips along the back of her neck up toward the base of her skull. She found the point on her skin where it felt slightly different to the touch than the rest of her did, a tad bit more rubbery than real skin was, and she pinched it with thumb and forefinger and pulled the epidermal plug out. There was no physical feeling but it still made her shiver again. She brought the plug around in front of herself to look at for a moment before setting it aside on the instrument tray beside the terminal, then she sorted the plugs in her other hand until she found the one she wanted, the same one she had used on Miku and Luka before. Then she hesitated yet again, took a deep breath, braced herself, then reached behind her head once more and slid the jack into her port.

Nothing happened. She blinked in surprise wondering what the problem was. The cable was in, she could feel it inside her neck. Trying not to think about how freaky that was she reached out to the etched keyboard and tapped a few keys. She located the diagnostic program easily enough and opened it, finding it was already detecting an "attached device." Her, she knew. She shivered, she was an attached device… Like everything else thus far it was the same she'd seen at the Compound, and a few clicks later the screen filled with programming code. _Her_ code. The first thing she noticed was that it was immensely complex, far more intricate and involved than either of her girlfriend's coding that she'd seen before, and theirs had been some of the most advanced she'd ever seen. The second thing that caught her eye was how much of it there was; The number of lines displayed at the bottom of the screen was easily three times Miku and Luka's. The final thing she saw was a big red word with a status light on the tray at the bottom that said "Unit Status: Active" and beside that "Read Only." It seemed that if she wasn't being accessed she couldn't alter her code, and if she lost conscious thought while was being accessed she didn't see how she could do it herself. This was a start though, the first step on her path. She leaned back in her chair and set herself to studying her protocols and subroutines.

… … … … …

Kiku stepped out of the elevator and the doors whooshed closed behind her. She glanced around the darkened hallway before turning the opposite way from the office with the two little kids still in it and exited the few small rooms into a much bigger open area. There were a few large windows to the outside which showed the last vestiges of the light of day fading as night came on and she had to step around the large oblong canvas covered shapes which dotted the cement floor of the long square building. When she reached the far end she found her little rickety table and wobbly stool right where she had left them only a few meters away from a large rack of tools. Sometimes she thought it a little odd that this abandoned storehouse could remain intact and unlooted by the less scrupulous members of society, especially considering the value it held, but when she recalled whose warehouse it was it didn't seem so far fetched afterall. She couldn't see the masses of souldrinkers hiding outside the building in the overgrown grass of the grounds or in the dumpsters or in the edges and overhangs of the building, but she could _feel_ them. Dozens of them, all around the entire area. Some were the remnants of her little attack force, programmed to return here after the mission at the Vocaloid Compound had ended, others she'd made since returning with her prize, but one and all they obeyed her. She would have traded all of them if only Yowane-san would understand…

She still felt upset at the snowy haired girl's words. It was something she wasn't accustomed to, having such a strong emotion other than anger or dreariness. She reached a hand down to Haku's phone, security badge, and butterfly hair tie sitting in the middle of her table, nudging wistfully at the items with one finger. Kiku thought perhaps it was just the effect her intended had upon her, but she felt as though a fist had tightened up around her lungs and was squeezing so she was having a hard time breathing. Anxiety was most decidedly an unpleasant state, and she wondered idly if she could program herself not to feel it. The master had said at one point that anything was possible with the right coding. It was an effort not to let it show, not to display any weakness at all. She couldn't afford that, not even here, especially not here. She couldn't feel the presence of the other person near her table however, but as he drew close enough to speak she could hear him breathing, could make out his soft footfalls on the concrete.

"You can't mean to keep her here. The master will come for her soon." Came his soft but dark voice.

"I'll keep her here until she's forced to leave, then I will go where she goes.' Kiku said simply, taking up the diaphanous plastic winged ribbon and twisting the soft cloth idly around the middle three fingers of her left hand, more for something to occupy her eyes to give the appearance of nonchalance more than out of any need to do anything with it.

"You will go where and when the master says, whether or not you get to keep the girl. Your obsession with her has already almost cost us everything once, do you really think you'll get away with it again?"

"I will go wherever and whenever she goes. I will follow her to the ends of the earth until she realizes we're meant to be together." Kiku hissed softly, her gaze coming up briefly to stare at the shadows, though she couldn't make out anything at the moment. Abruptly a sharp pain lanced through her head and she pressed her free hand to her temple reflexively. It took every shred of willpower she possessed to keep b from wincing or crying out, but she managed it. She would NOT show weakness in this place! To her vision flashing red letters appeared that read ' _Warning: Programming conflict, driver error, critical system incompatibility_ '. Kiku tried to ignore it, turning the gesture into a look of feigned exasperation. "Yowane-san is _mine_."

"And if she breaks free and gets away?" He asked mildly.

"She can't, she was ordered to stay here." She returned her eyes to the bow on her hand. She put it to her nose as though simply setting her hand in a gesture of contemplation, but she inhabited deeply. The cloth smelled slightly of lavender and very faintly of Haku's own perspiration.

"And if she overcomes that limitation?" He sneered. "You did."

She hadn't told him she had and she didn't see how he'd figured it out, but she decided lying was pointless. "It took me months to figure out how, and the master will be here in a few days."

"And if the Vocaloids come for her?"

She turned her gaze out the window, still holding the bow to her nose, her red-orange eyes seeming to blaze in the last rays of twilight. "Then I will kill them."

… … … … …

"Still nothing?" Sarge asked irritably.

Meiko shook her head and lowered her phone. "No, No answer. I've been trying for days but no text back."

"Damnit…" Sarge wasn't his real name, Meiko didn't know what he was called when on the streets, but he and his brother were the two biggest men Meiko had ever seen, standing head and shoulders above what she thought of as pro athlete height and possessing arms as thick and burly as most men's legs. They were also deadly beyond belief. She'd once seen Sarge bend a shotgun barrel in half with merely a twist of his wrists.

"Maybe… maybe she's just… lost her phone…?" Meiko's pale haired companion suggested beside her, and she looked around to her.

"Didn't you just sell her that phone, Aria-san?"

Ia shrugged uncomfortably. "Well no, not sold… I mean, I _gave_ it to her. I was undercover doing reconnaissance and they noticed me, I had to do _something_ …"

"And in the process you risked exposure via a confrontation with a store clerk who could have come back at any moment while you were pretending to work there. And you didn't even bug the phone!." Sarge growled.

Ia shrank back on on herself and Meiko's protective instincts kicked in. "She was just trying to improvise, it's our job after all. We didn't ask for this assignment! This entire situation was forced on us from the start and-!"

"Enough!" The big man's deep contrabass voice boomed through the small hotel room and they both fell silent, Meiko with a scowl and Ia with a wince biting at her lower lip. She did her best to open her mouth to say more, to let him have a piece of her mind, but her jaw might as well have been clamped shut with a vice for all the control she had over it in that moment. "We can't afford failure or setbacks. The head of the Public Security Intelligence Agency himself is watching this case. It will make or break our careers."

"Your career," Meiko said bitterly. "I don't have one anymore."

Sarge loomed large over her suddenly and in a very low voice said, "You were made to obey. So obey. I want that prototype and I want her here. Yesterday! Understand me?!"

" How?" Meiko asked bluntly. "She's practically disappeared off the face of the planet."

"Oh! Uhm!" Ia drew both of their gazes as she withdrew the ticket stubs from the concert the few weeks back. "Maybe we can trace these? Megurine-san gave them to me, but they have to have a sale listing somewhere. Her agency likely picked up the price so… Uhm… that could lead us to her manager and… well… an address…?"

Sarge peered at her a moment then nodded. "Get on it then. Find me that prototype. We can't let her parents reclaim her."


	22. Vocaloid Academy Chapter 22

Miku stared at the reflection of the pretty light blue twintailed girl in the stand mirror in her bedroom, started at her own reflection, considered it, pondered it, but no matter how long she looked she didn't see herself. She saw a monster, an amalgamation of human flesh and cold technology twisted together in a horrific way to create something not human at all. The face was hers, the look was hers, but… it wasn't her… was it? She was dead. She'd died. All that was left was this imposter, this imitation. She was a cyborg, a dead thing brought back to life against all laws of nature, against the natural order of reality. Was there truely anything left of Hatsune Miku inside her? Despair washed over her and she suddenly felt like a stranger was staring back at her from inside the mirror, a stranger wearing her face. She let out a shriek of frustration and brought her fist down in an overhead swing on the offending visage. The glass cracked and spiderwebbed under her blow, and she pulled her fist back to swing harder with a louder shriek than before. And again, and again, and again, shrieking the whole time and sending a shower of glass shards to the carpet in a rain of glittering tinkling sounds. She never heard Luka come into her room, didn't register it when she called out her name, but abruptly there were arms around her, dragging her back, pulling her away from the ruined mirror smeared with blood.

"Miku-chin! Stop it! You're bleeding!"

"I'm not bleeding! A machine is leaking!" She flailed her arms trying to get loose, lost in her melancholy. "Lemme go! It doesn't matter! It's not real!" Abruptly she let out a squeal as she found herself flying through the air. She landed on her bed with a soft fwump and suddenly Luka was on top of her, pink flowing hair cascading down around them. The idol's face was contorted in raw emotional pain with worry all over it as well.

"Stop! Stop it!" She shouted, and Miku blinked up at her girlfriend, green eyes going wide at the pink haired beauty's tone, her crystalline voice cracking with barely contained sorrow so deep it gave Miku pause in her own despair. "Please! We lost Haku-chin, I can't lose you too!" Tears dropped from her eyes down on to Miku's face and the twintailed girl flinched to see it. Luka was the strong one, she always had been. So confident and sure of herself while still being so beautiful, so feminine. Miku squeezed her eyes shut, thinking she didn't deserve this this radiant woman above her.

"I'm sorry…" she whispered and opened her eyes. "I can't…. I just don't know… how to handle this. We're… we're robots!"

"We're cyborgs." Luka corrected her quietly.

Miku shook her head. "Doesn't it bother you?"

"Of course it bothers me…" Luka answered softly. For an instant she looked like she wanted to say more, but words seemed to fail her in that moment and she winced. "But what can we do about it?"

"I can't tell what's real and what's fake." She replied plaintively. "I look in the mirror, and I see a stranger, a monster. How do I know who Hatsune Miku really is, and what I've been programmed to be?'

Luka shifted her weight to one arm so she could lift Miku's bloody hand with the other. For the first time Miku registered the pain in her hand and she winced and let out a little moan. "Look at your hand, Miku-chin. You're bleeding. That's real." She set the hand back down and gestured at the bed around them and the stuffed animals all over. "You collect things you like, that's real."

"But how do I know I wasn't programmed to like them?" She couldn't help objecting.

"Why would they program you for that?" Luka's crystalline voice was still soft, her blue eyes shining damply as she looked down at the girl she loved. Miku bit her lip, she had no answer, and Luka went on. "Did you like stuffed animals before you were- before two years ago?" She only stumbled a little on that and when Miku nodded she went on. "Everything about you is real."

"How do you know it's really _me_ though?" Her protest sounded hollow even to her own ears and she was worried Luka would laugh at her, but she didn't. "Give me even one solid way to know! Please!"

Luka stayed there for a long moment before shifting sideways off the top of her and pulling her phone out of her pocket. She tapped the screen a few times before holding it up so Miku could see. It was one of Miku's oldest videos, probably from her first concert or two when she was maybe fourteen or fifteen years old, and she couldn't help wincing at her scared younger self standing there on stage in some tiny little venue. She remembered, she'd been so nervous she'd thought she might melt. Luka tapped the play button and despite her obvious anxiety her voice came through loud and clear as she began to sing. It was full of emotion, full of passion, full of purpose. She turned her eyes up to Luka, tears of her own starting to build in her eyes. Luka smiled at her, a faint smile, but meaningful. "You can't fake genuine emotion, Miku-chin. You can't fake true talent. You sound just as vibrant and energetic in this video as you do today." She turned the video off and gestured at the keyboard to one side of the room. "You can't fake a person's interests, you can't give them desires or needs. Your wants may have changed as a result of the brain surgery, but everything is still _you_."

"What…" Miku swallowed at the emotions coming up in her throat making it hard to talk. "What about… the technology? If not for it-"

Luka interjected kindly but firmly. "It can't dictate your thoughts and feelings, it's just metal and plastic. If you want to talk about the anatomy we can go see your parents, but for what's inside your mind and your heart, the technology can't touch that."

"You're… you're sure?" Miku mumbled.

Luka leaned in close to her and Miku blushed slightly. "Do you love me?" She asked intently.

Miku's face heated even further at the suddenness of the embarrassing question, but she nodded. "Yes…"

"Yes what?" Luka pressed.

Miku swallowed harder than before. "Yes, Luka-chin, I love you."

"How much?" She pushed even further.

Miku squeezed her eyes shut with the embarrassment, but the words were there and she let them come. "With all my heart, with everything I am, with the heat and ferocity of a thousand stars." She felt lips brush hers and her green eyes popped open in surprise at the gentle kiss, then after a moment she returned it. Everything seemed to melt away and all she could focus on was the beautiful girl kissing her, their soft lips playing against the other's and their fingers twinning together.

Luka didn't lean back until breathing became a problem, their hearts hammering in their chests. "That's real." She said definitively, and Miku blinked. "If you doubt your heart, then you doubt our love. I love you just as deeply and fervently as you love me. Nothing in this entire world could be more real than that."

Miku nodded, the weight seeming to begin to lift from her shoulders at long last. She still didn't like this, but with Luka by her side she thought she could learn to overcome it. Glancing to the side she saw a hand carved little wooden box on her pillow. It must have jostled loose from the headboard when she'd hit the bed. Miku picked it up and opened the music box, the woman seeming to dance across the field of stars of the galaxy popping up inside the sparkling starscape of the box and "Twinkle Days" began playing. Miku's eyes misted over at the birthday gift Luka had given her. "You're my guiding star, Luka-chin.'

Luka lifted a hand to run her fingertips over Miku's cheek. "Never question your emotions, Miku-chin. Always follow your heart."

Miku squeezed her eyes closed once more, her emotions running rampant. She felt like she was spinning out of control with this whole thing, but Luka… Luka was here… she put her arms around her girlfriend without opening her eyes and felt Luka's encircling embrace on return. "I'm sorry, this is… just so hard to accept." She didn't quite sob but her voice definitely broke a bit. "I don't know how to deal with this… and losing… losing Haku-chin…" She trailed off and felt Luka's arms tighten around her.

"It's my fault…" she whispered.

Miku twitched at that, feeling her own protectiveness rear itself up from beneath her despair. "No, don't start that."

"It is though…" Luka insisted. "She just walked out, I didn't even try to stop her…"

"Juon-san would have killed us, and maybe Haku-chin…" Miku tried to say in a consoling way, but the thought bothered her too.

"But we… we didn't even try… we didn't even fight for our love… what good am I if… if I don't even fight for my love…?"

Miku felt tears hit her shoulder as Luka sobbed quietly in her arms, and she began to understand that Luka was having as much difficulty with all of this as she herself was, just in a different way. She clung to the pink haired beauty who clung back, thinking about the night Haku had left with Kiku. Something had been bothering her about it… well. The entire thing bothered her, but something was niggling at the edge of her mind, some small detail she thought she was overlooking. "I wish…" she mumbled. "I wish I was as smart as Haku-chin. I wish I could figure this out…"

"Figure what out?" Luka sniffed.

"I mean, it just doesn't make sense. Everything was fine, and then suddenly none of us were." Miku complained.

Luka was quiet a moment before pulling back a bit to look Miku in the eye. "No, not all off us. You and me. Haku-chin seemed fine except for worrying…" her blue eyes widened a bit. "Except for thinking she'd done something wrong to upset us."

Miku blinked then snapped her fingers feeling like they were on to something. "You're right, she did say that didn't she?"

The pink haired beauty nodded. "I had my… mood. Then you. She thought she was in trouble."

"Maybe… maybe that's why she… left us…?" Miku asked trying not to choke on the words.

They just looked at each other for a few moments, both of their eyes stinging with the tears that neither of them could stop even days later. Haku had chosen Kiku over them, had left with her without a word, not even looking like she cared. Neither of them could believe it, but… "Or maybe she… really was just starstruck… and got over us…" Luka whispered.

Miku narrowed her green eyes, that didn't sit well with her, she could feel it in the pit of her stomach. "That… that doesn't really sound like Haku-chin…" The exotic white haired beauty was far too practical, far too grounded, to be taken by flights of fancy like that. She shook her head and squeezed her eyes shut a moment. "That's what I thought, but…" She opened them again when she felt a sharp poke in her hand as well as a gentle touch and she looked down at her hand. The pink haired beauty was holding her wrist and rotating her arm to get a better look at her hand. Miku blinked in surprise at the amount of blood freely oozing out of the outside edge of her palm where she'd hit the mirror. "Ow! That really stings!"

"That's real." Luka said chidingly but then smiled up at Miku briefly to take away the reproach from the words, then turned her blue eyes back down to the hand she had ahold of. "I think there's a piece of glass still in the cut."

Miku winced at that and had to resist the urge to flex her fingers to try to feel if there was. "Ewww! Get it out!"

Luka shook her head, "If I just pulled it free I might cut you worse. Let's go find your mom." Miku nodded and started to get up but Luka didn't let go of her hand and she looked back down questioningly. That's when she saw the blood smears all over the other idol's very pink shirt. Miku gasped and put her good hand to her mouth in surprise.

"Oh! Luka-chin! Your shirt! I'm so sorry! I… I bled all over you!"

Luka just smiled then put her hands to her middle to take ahold of the shirt hem, then began to slide it up her torso. In spite of the circumstances Miku couldn't help blushing as her girlfriend stripped her shirt off, but she couldn't stop herself from looking either. She swallowed hard and felt her pulse begin to race as her whole body seemed to catch fire. Luka was such a beautiful woman, so curvy yet so athletic, so soft in all the right places. With only a very lacy purple bra left on her torso she once more took up Miku's hand in her own and wrapped the shirt around it. "It's fine, it's just a shirt." Her crystalline voice was music in Miku's ears.

"I could get a towel…" she said trying to shift, but Luka held her firmly in place by her hand

"Hold still." She admonished, and Miku had no choice short of forcibly pulling away. A moment later her hand was a wrapped ball of pink cloth. Her shirtless girlfriend smiled at her as she tied the short sleeves in a neat little knot to hold it in place and Miku's blush deepened.

"I'll ruin your shirt…" She mumbled, holding her hand up in front of herself, but Luka just waved the objection away and slid back off the bed.

"Don't worry about that. Come on, let's go find your mom." With an apparent compete lack of concern for her modesty the pink haired beauty strode out of Miku's bedroom and across the hallway to her own while Miku herself peeked around the corner of her door frame to make sure no one was there, then felt silly for doing so. For one thing it was the girl's section and there wouldn't be guys in here anyway, and for another thing their particular hallway was possessed of only six rooms before turning into another corridor, and three of them weren't in use. She followed as far as Luka's door and for all of her heated cheeks she couldn't make herself look away while her girlfriend pulled open her wardrobe and took out a clean white well cut shit to pull on. Quietly Miku took a few steps into the room as the pink haired beauty tugged the hem down into place, but before she could reach a hand up behind her to slide her flowing pink locks free of the shirt Miku did it for her, using her good hand to hook Luka's ponytail and slip it out of the neck of the shirt slowly, reverently. Luka turned her head to look back, one hand to her chest, and Miku leaned her head down to put a gentle kiss on the side of her neck, holding the pink stands she still had ahold of out of the way.

"Your so beautiful…" Miku whispered into her ear, "I can't help myself sometimes."

Luka smiled a radiant smile and turned around forcing Miku to let go of her hair. She pressed a much firmer kiss than her earlier one against Miku's lips, and Miku returned it gratefully, wrapping her arms around the other girl's shoulders even as she felt the same around her waist. When she was with Luka the pain from the past few days didn't seem as bad, didn't hurt as much, and she wanted to stay there forever. When the broke apart both panting slightly Luka smiled. "That's real." She said hotly, then giggled at Miku's wince and took up her good hand in her own. "Come on."

Letting Luka lead her by the hand Miku followed without complaint out into the hallway and out of the dorms still blushing faintly. She narrowed her green eyes in a sideways glance at her lover, peering at her face. Luka wasn't blushing. Intact, thinking back on it, she couldn't recall Luka ever bushing, at least not more than a faint warming of the cheeks here and there. Never as intensely as she herself was now, and nowhere even close to Haku. She smiled to herself thinking about that, at the mental image of the mysteriously exotic white haired beauty. Haku blushed deeply and often and it was absolutely beautiful, and sometimes Miku liked to tease her a little just to get to see it and- Abruptly her thought train cut off and her face fell. Haku again… it was like a part of herself as missing. No… cut off, ripped away. She wiped at her suddenly stinging eyes with the shirt wrapped around her hand not caring when the glass shifting in the cut stung. The physical pain of the gash was was nothing compared to losing Haku. She'd left… left with Kiku… had chosen that… that witch over them… Miku couldn't stop wondering what more she could have done, how she could have been a better girlfriend to prevent this. She scrubbed at her eyes harder, letting out a little choked sound that she couldn't quite tell whether had been caused by the emotional pain of losing Haku or by the sudden stabbing in her hand. Either way it got Luka's attention, the pink haired beauty turning to blink back at her. "What is it?"

Miku let her hand fall back to her side, her blue trimmed black skirt swishing a bit as she dropped the arm. Somehow it and her grey shirt had both miraculously escaped any blood splatter that she could see and her girlfriend hadn't mentioned seeing anything. "I… I miss Haku-chin…" She sobbed, and Luka's flawless face fell a little, in both sympathy and sadness as they continued walking, passing a few empty side offices with dark terminal screens. Ever since whatever Haku had done to the Compound's system most of the computers in the building had no access to anything and power seemed to only work for basic things like lights and hot water. The only terminals that worked were laptops with remote access to a backup satellite server that offered limited functionality beyond server access. Everyone in the lower levels were busy trying to restore the system, or so her parents said.

"I know what you mean." Luka whispered giving her hand a squeeze. "No matter what I do I can't seem to keep my thoughts from drifting back to her. It's like…" she trailed off with a shake of her head. They rounded a corner coming in to the front entrance hall with it's massive double doors and huge main staircase leading up to the next floor.

"Like there's a hole inside me." Miku said, and Luka nodded sadly. They were both scrubbing at their eyes now, and she was glad they had taken to wearing minimal makeup the past few days. These melancholy fits were frequent and came on out of the blue as often as not and they'd both gotten tired of having to stop whatever they were doing to fix their makeup every time.

They crossed the entry hall and went passed the stairs to the opposite side and into another corridor, but just as they did they heard their names called out and they halted and turned back to find Gumi, Teto, and Gackpo approaching. They waited for the trio to catch up, and Miku withdrew her hand from Luka's to nervously hide her hands behind her back not wanting them to wonder what had happened, not wanting to have to explain. She tried to look casual as though she were simply clasping her hands behind her back but in reality she was gripping the wrist of of her hurt hand with her good one. The cut was starting to throb now and she had too really concentrate to ignore it. She hoped she wasn't bleeding through her improvised bandage and getting it on the back of her skirt or dripping down the backs of her black leg warmers. That would look super bad and nothing at all like what had really happened! She couldn't stop a little shudder of embarrassment at just the thought of how that would look, and she held her arms back a bit so her wrapped palm wasn't touching her rear, just in case.

As the other three Vocaloids drew near Miku could see similar looks on their faces, each showing various degrees of disturbed expressions. Gumi seemed the most troubled biting her lip and rubbing at one arm with the other hand occasionally or shifting her weight side to side from one foot to the other. Teto's usually stoic reserved facade was still in place yet showed signs of cracks via the occasional chewing of a lip or rubbing of a hand over her face. As for Gackpo, he was outwardly calm and collected and seemed none the worse for wear, except that for for the usually verbose and passionate man that in itself was telling. Miku's parents had questioned the wisdom of telling the other Vocaloids what they really were so soon but they hadn't tried to stop her when she and Luka had firmly said they were going to. Or perhaps whatever Haku had done that night still deprived them of the means to…? Haku again... Miku felt her chest tighten and tears threaten but in the face of company she managed to shove them away. The others were dealing with the news in their own ways. All of them were, but she'd heard hysterical crying fits from Gumi and Teto's room a couple of times, and had seen Gackpo wandering the corridors in a listless aimless fashion staring off at nothing. She couldn't help but wonder if she could do anything for her friends.

"So are we going after the witch or what?" Gumi asked without preamble as they all drew up, crossing her arms over her curvy chest and giving her head a toss sending some of her short green locks swaying.

Miku traded glances with Luka and the pink haired beauty tilted her head. "Why would we do that?"

Gumi stared back incredulously. "Uh, duh! Because she took Haku-chan?!"

Miku flinched and this time she couldn't keep the tightness in her chest away. "Haku-chin made her decision." Saying that out loud almost made her start crying again on the spot, and though she felt like a fist had hold of her heart she kept the tears back, if just barely, though her voice sounded strained even to her own ears.

"Do you not still love her?" Gackpo's voice was quiet, bereft of it's usual grand eloquence, and Miku and Luka both winced as if struck. Their three way relationship wasn't a secret within these walls, and under his intent stare both women dropped their eyes in chagrin. "You must fight for your love. Even if it fails, even if it hurts, would it not be worse years down the road to wonder what might have been?"

Miku didn't know what to say to that, she could only grit her teeth and try to keep breathing, her chest feeling like it would burst from all the emotion, all the shame and misery and anger, at any moment. Luka however, despite feeling everything she herself was she had no doubt, raised her blue eyes to the others. "You're right, of course, but… but what if she doesn't… want us to…?"

Gackpo shook his head, "Even if she does not, would it not be the height of folly to presume and cast everything aside without even trying, without even knowing for sure?"

"Of course she wants you to!" Gumi put in. "I know Haku-chan, I've trained with her, ate with her, stayed up late talking with her! She hides her feelings really well underneath that exotic calm of hers, but she loves you both deeply, I just know it!" Gumi slashed at the air with a fist in front of herself for emphasis. "I've seen it in the way she looks at you, I've heard it in the way she talks about you, even when you're not there!"

Miku hands clenched into fists behind her and the pain lanced up past her wrist to her forearm from where the glass was embedded in it, but she didn't care. She brought her head up to stare at them. "But she left… she left us! She chose Juon-san over us and just… just walked out! We told you how it happened!"

They were all quiet for a moment then Teto tilted her head to the side a bit, her red conical twintails shifting slightly. "Are you sure she did?"

Everyone blinked and looked around at her and Gumi wrinkled her nose. "What do you mean, Teto-chin?"

Teto blinked and made a vague sort of gesture with one hand. "Yowane-san is…" She paused a moment then shook her head. "No… Haku-chan. Haku-chan is calm, calculating, and she sees things most other people miss. I've seen it in her multiple times, little details others would hardly take note of, things people say then forget, stuff that happens that doesn't seem important… she remembers it, weaves it into this tapestry in her mind and puts together the pieces. Can we be so sure that she really chose this? Maybe she didn't have a choice? Or if she did, maybe she made it for other reasons besides your relationship? Or to protect it?" The redhead wasn't used to saying so much all at once and she wrinkled her nose, but the sentiments seemed heartfelt.

Miku was so shocked at the notion she went completely still, so still that for an instant she even felt as though her heart had stopped, or maybe it was just the way it felt after days of cold misery suddenly warmed by the spark of hope. A faint spark, but still… she turned to look up to her girlfriend beside her, her green eyes meeting blue, and saw the same spark reflected in Luka's face. "Could… could it really be…?"

"We should really talk to your parents…" Luka said. "They may have some further insight into this."

Abruptly Gumi wrinkled her nose. "Oh grody! What is that nasty smell?!"

Everyone paused at the suddenness of such a curious statement and they all turned their heads up, sniffing at the air. Gackpo grimaced, "It's reminiscent of rancid sweets."

"I think it's coming from the garage." Teto gestured down that hallway the two idols had been about to enter where the main building connected to the garage, and they all headed down the corridor and through the door. They spread out sniffing at the air and Miku almost felt like giggling at the sight of five such powerful beings such as them all just waving their noses around. Almost felt like it, but the hurt was still too potent.

It was Luka who found where the odd smell seemed to be coming from, her crystal voice seeming to ring off the concrete garage floor. "I think it's here." Everyone moved over to her curiously as the pink haired beauty opened the driver side door of the four eighty-eight and popped the Ferrari's trunk.

Miku wrinkled her nose as Luka shut the the driver door once more. "In my Ferrari?" It wasn't actually hers perse and she knew that but she thought of it that way, treated it as if it was, felt as though it were. She reached out a hand to lift the trunk all the way open and all five of them reached a hand up to hold their noses.

"Bleaugh! What _is_ that?!" Gumi sputtered.

"There appears to be a bag." Gackpo pointed.

Luka leaned down and took the bag by the handles to lift it to the edge of the trunk. Miku thought her girlfriend overly brave for that at first then remembered that despite her amazingly smooth and delicate skin she was used to getting her hands dirty the way she worked on her own motorcycle. The brand on the bag was a well known gourmet sweet shop chain, and she watched as Luka peered into the bag for a moment then reached in and lifted out a box and some paper. Everyone groaned at the smell, it was definitely coming from the box, but it was a box both of them knew well. "My favorite truffles…" Luka blinked.

"How is chocolate making such a horrific stench?" Gackpo asked. "Old chocolate doesn't go bad in such a manner as this."

"it doesn't just smell like chocolate." Teto noted.

"Some of them had cherries or strawberries in them, or were filled with flavored cremes or syrups." Luka said glancing at the box.

"We run the heat pretty high in there sometimes, they must have melted and the more perishable bits leaked out." Miku mused, looking into the trunk and making a face. "I hope none of it got smeared on the leather…"

"Ooooooh did you leave them in the car?" Gumi asked.

Luka shook her head, "I didn't buy these." She looked askance at Miku who also shook her head.

"Wasn't me." She told her. They blinked down at the papers, an envelope and a strip of thin paper, and Miku picked up the strip as Luka lifted the envelope. "A receipt? Sale price, store number, location…" she blinked and looked up. "This was from the Stellar Palace… dated when we were there…"

Luka's blue eyes widened and she held up the envelope which had their names written on it in a delicate flowing script they both knew. Miku felt a stab of emotion in her chest and after a brief hesitation Luka gently tugged the envelope open and unfolded the card. Miku leaned over her girlfriend's shoulder to read with her, the words written in Haku's same delicate hand as on the front. " _Luka-chin, Miku-chin, I've been trying to figure out what I did wrong to upset you both so much, but I can't figure out what I did and neither of you will talk about it. Whatever it was, I'm sorry and I want to fix it. I hope you can feel like you can talk to me about it soon. I love you both more than anything else in the world. You're my everything, and no matter what happens I want you both to know you each come first in my heart, before anything else. I love you. -Haku_ " Tears splashed the card and at first Miku thought they were hers until she glanced up to see Luka's blue eyes overflowing, her hands clutching the card before her. Miku leaned her head down intending to nuzzle the pink haired beauty's shoulder but ended up just burying her face against her neck as they both shook with silent sobs.

"She… she really thought… it was her fault…" Luka murmured.

"She… does love us…" Miku whispered, clutching Luka shoulders with her arms as emotion overwhelmed her. " _She does love us!_ "

"My Haku-chin… oh my sweet exotic angel..." Luka sobbed, reached her arms up to cling to Miku's around her and they just held each other for a few moments while trying to get their emotions under control, both embarrassed at having broken down in public. The other Vocaloids were kind enough to take a few steps away to have a quiet word among themselves to give the idols some semblance of privacy while they composed themselves. Hope flared anew within Miku's breast but she found that though it was a warm feeling it made breathing just as difficult as the despair had. But it felt better than the other, and if it were really true…

When they'd stopped crying and began wiping their eyes their friends came back over and Luka quietly held up the card for them to see. Miku was a little embarrassed at showing such a private thing so openly but the pink haired beauty didn't look like she wanted to trust her voice to explain it right then and Miku didn't think she did either. Besides which, they were all friends, and what's more, they were all Vocaloids. All cyborgs, and they all knew it now. She didn't think she was the only one suddenly sensing a subtle yet strong feeling of bonding between them, almost like a kinship. She wondered if it was the programming or herself feeling that, and for a moment her earlier bleakness threatened to wash over her again, but she focused on Luka, focused on her love, and forced it down.

Gumi's face lit up after they'd all read it and she pointed at the card in victory. "See?! It's just like I said! You have to see it now too don't you?" She looked up at them both expectantly.

Luka hesitated a moment, despite everything a lingering doubt remained in her, and Miku couldn't blame her, she felt the same. "I just…" Her crystalline voice was a little strained. "I just… heard… that Haku-chin might have just… been starstruck… because I'm an idol… and because I saved her life…" Miku felt a shiver run down her spine but the tall man got a word in before she could.

Gackpo shook his head as though the notion wasn't of any import. "Such things can stir the heart 'tis true, yet true passion, real love, cannot be so easily explained away." His voice very nearly held it's old grandiose tones but fell flat, yet the sentiment was genuine.

"Where did you hear that?" Teto asked tilting her head further.

Luka blinked at the question. "Why does that matter?" She asked hesitantly.

"Well I never said anything like that, and I know Gumi-chin wouldn't." Gumi shook her head emphatically, and when the redhead looked up at Gackpo he too shook his head, though much less fervently than the curvy green haired girl. Teto returned her gaze to the two idols. "Unless I miss my guess, Hibiki-sensei is in a mixed relationship too and would never slander anyone's choices in partners. That accounts for all of us, doesn't it? All of the Vocaloids that exist for real?"

Miku's eyes widened, the point was so obvious when spelled out like that. Part of the deception on her parent's part had been that there were far more Vocaloids than there actually were, and that they in fact needed to be sponsored to get in. They had all been programmed to ignore the presence of the lab staff and tech admins that maintained he labs in the sublevels and assume they were part of their numbers as a Vocaloids to give them the illusion that they were a large organization to keep away suspicion of the truth. The reality was that they needed specific cadavers to convert into cyborgs and that meant very exacting circumstances surrounding cause of death. It had all been a big ruse and the fact that there were in actuality so few sources for such gossip to have come about gave them all pause. Finally Luka lowered her head, her face flushing from the shame of the admission even as her face darkened in anger and she said quietly, "Juon-san said it… it sounded… I don't know, possible…"

Miku's eyes widened and she spluttered, "She said the same thing to me! She said that you two looked made for each other, and I was a third wheel and not as beautiful, and that I had forced my way between you… that…" She swallowed hard as the admissions poured out of her. "That I didn't give either of you a choice but to accept me…"

Luka's head came up at the words, her face going pale as her mouth dropped open. "You saw her too…?" Miku swallowed again and nodded. "She said the same sorts of things to me, that I… had led you both on… forced you both to accept us all three or lose me…" She lifted a graceful hand and wiped at her eyes. "Gods I'm so sick of crying…"

"It was a ploy." Gackpo said decisively, the strength of his voice beginning to grow. "She played on your insecurities, on your doubts, to drive a wedge between you and thusly to pry lose the prize she so coveted."

"Haku-chin…" Luka breathed, her own eyes widening.

"That… that _witch_!" Miku spluttered. The despair and anguish and heart ache within her was slowly beginning to change, to transform into something else, as though it were catching fire within her. "She manipulated us! We played right into her hands!"

The pink haired beauty looked from one of her friends to the other, the look on her face now one of longing. She wanted to believe, she desperately needed to believe, but something was holding her in check. Miku wanted to give her that deliverance more than anything. She wanted her girlfriend to feel the fires of anger at Kiku that she was, wanted to share the righteous fury with her. "Then why did Haku-chin leave with her without a word…?" She trailed off and her blue eyes glinted with sudden realization as it dawned on her at the same time it hit Miku.

"She didn't have a choice!" Miku felt energy course through her body, her natural bubbliness having been absent for days now surfacing and she began to bounce in place barely able to contain the hope and fury rolling through her, like the black clouds of her mood suddenly and finally were breaking like a storm front. "Juon-san herself said it! Remember? That she could hear us but not do anything about it!" Luka opened her mouth but in her excitement Miku couldn't stop her flow of words. She hadn't felt like this in what felt like a lifetime. "She said Haku-chin couldn't do anything about it cuz she wasn't in control of herself it was that thing earlier I was saying I couldn't put my finger on remember how we looked when mom and dad accessed us so we could see what it looked like and to us it felt like no time had passed but to the other one we got that glassy eyed look totally all zombie status that's totally how Haku-chin looked when she was following her out and doing what she told her she was accessed somehow OH probably that phone call she got that's when she started behaving like a space case but we thought she was leaving cuz THAT WITCH had played us beforehand somehow she knew this was going to happen and she set us up-!"

"Remember what Haku-chin said at the hospital?" Luka interjected smoothly, finally managing to slide a word in edgewise.

Miku blinked at that and tilted her head, unaware of her light blue twintails shifting behind her. "About psychology?"

The pink haired beauty nodded. "That the only two reasons to believe a lie are that you want to believe it's true," She paused a moment for emphasis, "Or because you're afraid it is."

"I was afraid it was…" Miku whispered softly. "I was afraid I wasn't good enough for either of you, afraid I'm not as beautiful as you both…" She trailed off a moment then shook her head as heat entered her chime like voice. "No, not 'was' afraid, I still am. I still am!" Miku slapped her knees with the palms of her hands for emphasis so caught up was she in her revelations and she let out a yelp of pain and shifted her gaze down at her hand still wrapped in Luka's shirt. She'd forgotten all about it and as she looked a fresh stain of blood began to spread on the pink material, soaking through the fabric. She heard a gasp beside her and looked up too see Gumi staring at her hand and Teto and Gackpo blinking in surprise.

"What happened?!" Gumi asked.

Miku felt her cheeks flush with embarrassment and turned her head away biting her lip to keep from having to answer, but a gentle touch on her injured hand brought her head back around to see Luka calmly adjusting the pink cloth on her hand. Outwardly calm anyway, but her blue eyes seemed to have turned hard as diamonds and she could see her own fury reflected in them. "She accidentally hurt her hand earlier when we were talking about… about us. All of us, being what we are. She's having a hard time accepting what's happened to us." She told them, twisting the truth around like she was so good at doing without saying a single untrue thing but managing to leave out the part about Miku throwing a fit and smashing her mirror.

They were all quiet for a long moment, a somber silence passing and Miku couldn't help but think of it as the kind of silence there was during a funeral. The thought made her shiver again. Then abruptly Gumi stomped her foot on the floor in an emphatic gesture, even if a slightly childish one, and the sober quiet spell seemed to pop like a bubble. "You know what?! Who cares?!" She flung her arms out to either side, her pale green shirt with white splash patterns seeming to ripple around her. "So we're robots! So what?!"

"Cyborgs." Teto corrected her bluntly, but Gumi went on undaunted.

"I still don't know how I died, and you know what? I don't want to. It doesn't change how I feel today or how I felt last week or last month! Whatever's inside me is just a part of who I am and that's that." Her impassioned words were actually starting to reach them all, Miku could both feel it in herself as well as see it in the others. "We're a family now, ne?! We're here to do good in the world and support each other. We're the Vocaloids, no one else can say that, and no one can take that away from us now. We're superheroes!" She threw a fist in the air and they all blinked at her, then Gackpo dropped his gaze and shook his head wryly. Luka rolled her eyes and sighed and Miku brought her good hand up to cover her mouth to hide a giggle. Teto stared at Gumi for a long moment then reached up and gently bopped her on the head. "Ow! Hey! What was that for?!" She looked more surprised than anything, there was no way that had actually hurt.

"You were making a good point until that lame last part." Teto chided her.

"What? Why?" Gumi objected. "We have superpowers, how are we not superheroes?"

"Because superheroes are a fairy tale." Teto admonished.

"We're not superheroes. We're just trying to do good by stopping the souldrinkers." Luka said, her crystal voice not unkind. "And coming to understand ourselves in the process. Gumi is right, it's what I was trying to tell Miku earlier. The fact of what we are can't fake our feelings. What we have here is real, and it's up to us what we make of it." Everyone was nodding along to her words, and just like that Luka was in charge, taking the lead as she so naturally did. Miku could never figure out how her girlfriend took charge so easily and confidently even when she was so upset or angry inside, but she admired her for it to no end.

"Our art hath taken on new perspective yet remains true to form. We may still master it and ourselves." Gackpo said gesturing expensively.

"So when do we rescue Haku-chan?!" Gumi asked emphatically. Everyone looked to Luka, who glanced down at Miku's injured hand.

"First we need to talk to Miku-chin's parents, and take care of her hand."

Gumi scoffed a bit at that. "Do we even need them for this? Or anything anymore?"

Miku scowled at her feeling her protectiveness of her family bubbling up from the rest of her anger at the circumstances. "Yes we need them. They're my parents."

"They lied to us and tricked us, they're the ones that did this to us." Gumi objected.

"They thought they were doing the right thing. Their intentions were good." Miku shot back.

Teto lifted a hand to rest on Gumi's arm before the green haired girl could respond. "They still have knowledge and understanding of events and of our inner workings that we lack. At the very least we need them to support us."

"They're still the Directors." Luka pointed out. "They still own this Compound and all the equipment and resources in it. We may not be beholden to therm any longer, but we've agreed to work with them because we believe in the same goals and ideals."

"Which means their success is our success." Gackpo added. "And our victories are theirs. Through effort and mastery of ourselves we can only serve to strengthen us all."

Gumi's scowl eased and she nodded, clearly not happy with it but apparently accepting Luka's decision, and Miku felt that part of her anger subside. She looked around at her girlfriend, and Luka gave a nod. "Then let's go see the Director and have your mom tend to your hand." She turned to the others and offered a smile, a real smile, the first Miku had seen from her in days and it made her warm inside to see it. "Thank you all, you've given us hope."

Gackpo shook his head. "No less so than you have given us perspective and lifted our spirits. As was pointed out, we are all bound inextricably in this, and if we do not stand by and support each other we shall fall individually."

Teto let out a long suffering sigh and rolled her eyes. "He means that you've done as much for us as we've done for you."

They all chuckled a bit and agreed to meet in one of the rear studios after Luka and Miku had finished talking to her parents, and they all separated in the hallway and went different directions. As soon as they rounded a corner Miku reached her good hand down to take Luka's hand in hers, holding it as they walked along. Her girlfriend smiled at her and laced her fingers through Miku's and gave a gentle squeeze. Her blue eyes still showed the same hard look with fury behind them but there was hope there too now. Miku understood, she felt the same way. Haku really did love them, she hadn't betrayed them or left them. They had to get her back, they _had_ to. They _would_. Somehow they would. She just hoped her parents could offer some insight on the matter. They were still her parents, she had to keep that fixed in her mind as much as she did her love for Luka and Haku. Hatsune Mira and Motsu were still her parents, and she was still their daughter. She was still Hatsune Miku.

Once they reached the medical wing they found it empty, but there was a laptop active on an office desk near the exam room as well as her mother's lab coat hung on the back of the chair. She couldn't be far so they drew two more chairs up to the desk to wait. Miku's hand was aching fiercely now and she leaned her elbows on the desk to rest it on top beside the terminal. She glanced to her side and saw Luka studying the computer curiously. "Is something wrong?"

"No…" Luka's said ponderously, then blinked at Miku. "I just wonder… if we're cyborgs, could I learn to do anything I wanted?"

Miku blinked and glanced at the laptop then back again. "Like what?"

The pink haired beauty shrugged. "Like anything. Like hack computers like Haku-chin."

"I don't know…" Miku said dubiously. "Haku-chin is amazing. I've never seen anyone do what she can with a computer."

Luka nodded at that. "Me either. But if we're cyborgs, shouldn't we be able to, I don't know, download the ability to do it? Or anything else?"

"It doesn't quite work that way." Came a voice from the doorway to the office and they turned to see Doctor Hatsune standing there, her black slacks and blue blouse almost seeming odd without her lab coat on. Having caught the last bit of the conversation she shook her head. "You can download raw knowledge all you like, at least until your internal memory fills up, but downloading information isn't the same as learning it, nor does it give you the ability to do anything with it." She looked about to say something more but stopped when she noticed Miku's hand. The ball of shirt was more red now than pink and Miku couldn't stop a wince, worry of what her mother would think upsetting her more than the pain. "What happened?'

"Glass…" she mumbled trying not to look pouty. Her mother came in far enough to take up her lab coat and slip it in on before gesturing to the door for the two girls to follow, and they all crossed into the exam room. Mira gently pushed her daughter onto the exam table and Luka stood a short step away but stayed within arm's reach for which Miku was grateful. She didn't know why she felt so nervous, it was just a piece of glass. The Doctor very carefully untied and unwrapped the blood soaked shirt. Miku winced and looked away, it was a mess but she heard her mother hum to herself.

"It looks worse than it is. I don't think you'll when need any stitches." She said and Miku felt her mother turn her hand over and begin applying some sort of cool ointment to the cut. Her hand began to tingle and she felt it numb a bit.

"May I ask you to explain what you meant before, Doctor Hatsune?" Luka asked as Mira worked. "About us downloading information?"

Miku felt her entire hand begin to tingle and she glanced down. Her mother had several bandages and cloths spread out on a rolling tray now and had cleaned her wound enough to expose a bit of glass glinting in the light. She shivered and looked away again, focusing on her girlfriend's face as her mother answered the question. "Just what I said. It's helpful, just not as useful as it seems."

Luka frowned slightly in thought. "But if I can literally plug any knowledge I want into my head at will, what's to stop me from learning and doing anything I want?'

"What's to stop anyone?" Mira countered the question. She picked up an instrument that scraped metallically on the tray making Miku wince more, but she found that even though she could feel the glass shifting in her hand whatever her mother had done to numb it made it not hurt much more than it already did. "We live in a day and age where literally any knowledge a person could want is at their fingertips on little devices carried around in their pockets. Anyone at any time can simply take out their phone and find out anything at all. As Vocaloids you simply don't have that middle step. Being a cyborg there's nothing you can do with a tablet you couldn't do with your own minds."

Miku let out a little squeak of pain as she felt her mother jerk a piece of glass free of her hand, but with the local anesthetic she'd used it was more surprising than painful. Still she felt a comforting pat on her arm and Luka reached down to run a hand over her head even as she continued talking with the doctor. "Then I don't see the… ah!" Her face lit up as she began to see it. "I could download the information on something but that wouldn't guarantee I'd understand it."

Mira nodded at that as she carefully extracted another piece of glass from her daughter's hand. "I could pick up a rulebook on baseball but that wouldn't mean I would immediately gain the abilities of a professional athlete. And I could try reading through a book on theoretical quantum physics but they doesn't mean I would understand a word of it. As Vocaloids, your cybernetic enhancements make you able to process information thousands of times faster than a human brain could, but while you have an internal memory drive it's essentially just storage space. Your biological brain still has to make sense of that information, there's still a learning process for you, it just takes place far faster for you as a cyborg with the Vocaloid Chip managing your synapses at so much higher speeds than a normal mind."

"Then our internal memory is separate from out brain?" Luka wanted to know.

"In terms of physical hardware yes, but not functionally, no. The Vocaloid Chip manages them together in concert. Essentially whatever you downloaded is in fact in your memory the same as your brain might remember something. It synchronizes both and you learn in that way.

"Then how did you… delete our memories…?" Luka asked quietly. Miku narrowed her eyes but she wanted to know that too.

"How do you know…?" Doctor Hatsune started to ask.

"Haku-chin saw a note in the Director's files that mentioned doing so."

Mira shook her head and sighed. "I never know wether to be annoyed or impressed by that girl…" she sighed and picked up a roll of bandages. "In actuality, we can't wipe your memories, not once you've learned something or experienced an event. Once imprinted on your biological brain it's there for good like anyone else. All we can do…" she paused a moment and shook her head then picked up Miku's hand and began wrapping. "Or I suppose I should say, all we _could_ do until Yowane-san locked us out, was use your command interface to order you to ignore certain things. You'd still see it, still register it, but the Vocaloid Chip managing your minds means we can gate information."

Luka opened her mouth to respond to that but Miku found she couldn't keep silent suddenly and looked up at her mother. "And you didn't stop to think there might be something morally wrong with that?"

Doctor Hastune blinked and looked at her daughter in surprise for a moment then a look of pain came over her face. "Of course we did. At first it was a safety precaution; you _are_ beings with power far exceeding that of humans after all. If you malfunctioned in the wrong way the destruction you could cause…" She trailed off as she saw the blood draining from their faces. Miku suddenly felt like she might be sick. She'd never thought of it like that before, had never stopped to think about the potential backlash of her abilities.

"I… I would never…" Miku spluttered.

Her mother patted her arm again. "I know, dear, I'm not saying you would. Yet in the event of something catastrophic, some fatal error or flaw beyond your control. Or worse… a Vocaloid _designed_ to do such bad things…"

"Juon Kiku…" Luka murmured, and the doctor nodded, setting Miku's wrapped hand down with a motherly pat.

Miku inspected the hand, flexed it experimentally. It still ached but not as much and she could move it without much trouble. She looked up at her mother. "Will it scar?'

The doctor shook her head, "No dear, I used am antibiotic ointment to clean it that contains the same kind of experimental compound we use in the Vocaloid conversion process. It not only keeps the cells of the body from decaying for a time but also helps the body to heal wounds by seamlessly knitting tissues back together. It's why you don't have scars all over you as a result of the extensive implants thought your body."

"And this miraculous drug led to human test subjects?" Luka had to strain to heep her vice from being too bitter and she wasn't sure she really managed it.

"Not human, cadavers." She said and when Luka opened her mouth to reply she raised a hand to forestall objection.."Still wrong in some ways, I know now. To be honest with you girls… it was almost a relief for me when you found out. Your father's instinct was to try to override you with your command interface when it happened, right after Yowane-san…" She paused a moment then shook her head. "Not that it would have worked, of course, with what she did. But that was his first thought, and I talked him out of it. This was a chance to really connect with you, with the Vocaloids we had created up to now. I…" Her voice broke and a tear leaked down her face, causing both of the idols to jump in surprise. Miku couldn't remember ever seeing either of her parents cry outright before. "I was never comfortable with it, I never liked what I'd been responsible for… turning you in to… but it was necessary. We had to fight the souldrinkers, and I couldn't let my only child go…"

Miku's heart went out to her mother and she leaned up and put her good arm around her, and she felt Mira return the hug eagerly. "It's okay mom… I forgive you…" A sudden weight felt as though it had lifted from her shoulders, almost as though this were a key moment in relieving her own feelings surrounding her death and cybernetic conversion. "I don't want to lose you or daddy either. But…" She pulled back slightly and looked to Luka. "I can't lose Luka-chin either. Or Haku-chin… We have to save her. I love them more than anything else in the world." Luka smiled at her and she was about to say more but a deep bass voice cut through the room.

"That will be exceedingly difficult daughter, yet if that is your wish…" Director Hatsune strode into the room and all three women turned to look at him in surprise.

"How long have you been there?" Mira asked.

"Long enough." Motsu replied, then looked from one feminine face to the next. "I am glad your mother talked me out of trying. She was right, and in the heat of the moment sometimes the line between morality and duty… can blur." It was as much of an apology as Hatsune Motsu ever gave, and they all smiled at him. "Which is why I am so very glad you both consented to work with us after you found out. Juon Kiku is perhaps the most dangerous creature alive. She possess both the abilities of a Vocaloid as well as those of a souldrinker, and if she's allowed to roam free the devastation she could inflict would be immeasurable."

"Fortunately, she seems to have one vital weakness." Doctor Hatsune added.

"Haku-chin." Luka's crystal voice was hard as diamonds once more.

"Yes. For some reason she seems fixated on Yowane-san." The Director replied.

"She can't have her." Luka practically growled at the same time Miku said "But why?"

"We don't know for sure, but if you would rescue Yowane-san you will need to be strong enough to face Juon-san."

"Can you do for us what she did to Haku-chin?" Luka asked. "Force our powers fully awake?"

"Absolutely not!" Motsu said fervently.

"We're not even completely certain how she did it." Mira said more gently. "Yet even so, it very nearly killed Yowane-san. It would be far too risky even if we knew how, which we don't."

"Then we will have to find another way, but we _will_ save her." Luka said feverishly, her natural protectiveness surging up, and Miku nodded. She felt the same way. Now that they knew what had happened there was no way they couldn't leave Haku in Kiku's grasp.

"I would suggest…" The director ventured, "That stopping Juon-san should be the priority, yet in this instance it seems that both goals align. I would simply ask that you both take the utmost care in your preparations to save Yowane-san."

Abruptly Miku felt something inside her shift, some emotional need coming to the surface within her, and she reached out to take her father's hand. He blinked in surprise but let her, and she reached her now bandaged hand to take her mother's as well. She brought them together then reached for Luka's, her girlfriend adding hers and Miku held all three hands and looked between them. "Not 'Yowane-san', not anymore." She told her parents sternly, the silk sheath that usually covered her iron will falling away as she looked them in the eye. She was a Hastune, she had to act like it. "And not 'Megurine-san' anymore. Mom, dad, these are the women I love. Whatever has happened, however this has come about, this is how it is. Please, I need you to accept them as you accept me. If you want all of us to work together, to be the Vocaloids, to be united in this cause, you have to start seeing us as people, not instruments, and you have to start by accepting my girlfriends as family." She softened her voice a little and added, "Please." Her stomach was turning somersaults and that queasy feeling that had never quite gone away redoubled itself, but she refused to let it show. Luka's eyes were wide with surprise, but she didn't falter either, showing her support of Miku by simply being there with her in this.

Her parents traded looks and Mira smiled at her husband. Motsu shifted his gaze down to Miku and a rare smile of his own spread on his lips. Not a large one, but it was there, and it was enough to warm Miku's heart and calm her insides. He put his hand on her shoulder and his deep bass voice held a note of fatherly affection as equally rare as his smile. "You truly are my daughter. All Hatsunes have a will of iron, and you had it even before your accident two years ago. No matter what happens in the future, no matter how things have unfolded in the past, remember that. You _are_ Hatsune Miku." She felt tears sting her eyes but they were tears of joy, tears of pride, and she smiled and nodded even as Motsu turned his gaze to the pink haired beauty next. "I told you once to watch over them both, as did my wife. I also told you that I would accept no less than the absolute best for my daughter. In part that is because she is so important to me as my offspring, but in part it is also in concern for her chosen partner. Or… I suppose partners, in this case. The core of steel that runs through a Hatsune is as a lightning rod, as I explained on the roof the night of Juon-san's attack. It takes a special person to handle that storm, to weather it, and to not be broken down by it, and I believe you have that within you… Luka."

"She does." Miku whispered, holding up her bandaged hand. She didn't explain, but everyone seemed to understand.

Miku's mother smiled from her daughter to her husband, and then to the pink haired beauty. "Welcome to the family, Luka."

Luka smiled up, her own blue eyes shining as well. "Thank you… thank you both so much." She looked across to Miku and smiled at her. "That's real." Miku flushed.

"Now." The Director said, letting their hands drop and looking around. "You realize this could be the most dangerous thing you've ever done as Vocaloids. There is no guarantee of success, and given what Juon-san said before about going after her…" When they nodded their understanding, their gazes determined despite the possibility of losing their lives in the attempt, he went on. "As this seems to be the way things stand, how do you intend to rescue our missing family member?"

Miku turned a suddenly steely gaze to Luka whose own look blazed like the sun. They both knew, it was all they could do. "We have to find where Juon-san took her, and we have to train. Intensive training, push ourselves until we are strong enough to face her." Luka said, and Miku nodded. They were going to do this. They could do this. It was the only thing to do.


	23. Vocaloid Academy Chapter 23

Her red eyes snapped open and Haku let out a little gasp, glancing around her parent's main lab area where she'd been kept for nearly two weeks now. Or maybe they had already been open and she hadn't been registering visual input, which was just as likely. She never knew what her body did when her command interface was active. She looked up at the diagnostic terminal before her that she'd been using since that first day she found out what she could do, the screen showing her lines and lines of coding where she had left it. The code was altered now from the way it had been, and she blinked at it studying the changes. In an odd way this felt almost surreal, trying to edit her own programming, almost as much so as it had been studying her own death photos, but she supposed it was just because of the fact that she even had a code that could be altered. Yet she was determined, and after a couple of days experimenting with scripting she'd found a way to circumvent her own security measures on her command interface. It was time consuming and clunky and she didn't like it, but for the time being it was all she had, the only way she could really find to go about it without outside help, and she had to get out of here. She couldn't stand being kept away from Miku and Luka and she needed to escape. Her parents were supposed to be getting back into the country the day after tomorrow and she had to be ready to go. After replaying events in her mind over and over she'd determined that she couldn't leave of her own free will because she'd been accessed by her father, and some directive must be keeping her in place until he arrived to give her a new directive, but she intended to be ready to run as soon as the first part of that was fulfilled. As soon as they showed up, if she found she could leave, she was going to.

She glanced at the time clock on the system tray of the terminal, as she did every time she ran one of her code altering scripts. The code recompilation always took a long time because her programming was so long and complex, but at least she didn't need to fear any errors. She'd been designed to do this after all. She could remember years gone by when she had been younger having a quicker mental acuity than most people and a nearly eidetic memory, but the cybernetic enhancements had only made it more so, and now that she had been created to take advantage of technology it seemed a waste not to use it against the people that had done this to her, use it against her parents, and against Kiku. The second thing she did was to check for signs the darkly beautiful woman had been there, twisting around in her chair to look toward the elevator. Periodically Kiku brought food down to her, and if Haku was asleep or in the bathroom she left it on a table for her to find later without interrupting or disturbing her. She'd also come down a couple of times to talk as well, or more accurately to try too convince Haku that they belonged together. Her entire basis for this seemed to be what she'd said before, that they were unique in their construction and therefore made for each other. To hear her tell it it was like fate or something but she couldn't follow that line of reasoning. This time however there was no food tray and no Kiku. By Haku's estimation she was due to come down soon but she thought she could sneak another script or two in. She had thus far timed her code alterations to keep from getting caught doing it but that didn't mean it couldn't happen, and she was running out of time.

Turning back to the terminal she looked over the script she'd been working on. Once she'd hit on the idea of using one to access herself all she'd had to do was search through the databanks in the lab computers until she'd found enough voice clips of her father in his files recording notes or observations to get enough sound samplings from them to put together an audio clip of him using her access keyword to put her into command interface mode. Her first script had played that sound file, ran through it's own code which consisted of applying pre-made alterations to her own programming she prepared ahead of time, then recompiling her and returning her to normal function. That first alteration had been to do the same thing to her own security access that she'd done to her girlfriend's back at the Vocaloid Compound, adding their three names and deleting all others. After that recorded herself saying her own keyword and used that in future scripts. She hadn't had time to read through all of her code in it's entirety, there was just too much of it and she would still need to study it in depth later, but so far she'd gone through to remove operating restrictions, changed her access keyword so she couldn't be directly accessed unless she wished, had altered a block that handled memory access so she couldn't have her memories locked out, and had outright deleted a chunk of programming that forced her to obey anything her parents told her to do. She'd hoped doing that last change would have removed whatever command was keeping her here, but she'd found that when she approached the elevator with the intent off leaving she still couldn't force herself to press the call button. There must still be some root command pathway that kept active instructions enforced that she hadn't found yet.

Settling back into her chair Haku watched the screen, her gaze moving steadily over the numbers and symbols of her code. The cursor almost looked like it was hoping down the lines of programming on it's own but of course it wasn't. Being directly interfaced with her mind through her cybernetic implants via her specially designed wireless transmitter was still both fun and exciting to her, but the need to escape was tempering the thrill and she focused on her task instead. She didn't even need the screen anymore honestly, she could have done this in her head now that she knew how, but the script she was ruining to edit herself had to be written independently of her local code, so she used this diagnostic station. As the screen scrolled past before her eyes she picked up that basic black hairbrush she'd found in her first foray into the back area restrooms, pulled the glittery purple plastic hair clip free of her cascading snowy white locks, set it aside and shifted her hair over her shoulder to her front and began to run the soft bristles through her it. There was really no need, but it gave her hands something to do while she kept an eye on the screen since she didn't need to touch the keyboard or mouse anymore, operating the terminal's UI with her mind. Or rather, with her own interface. She wondered idly which term was more appropriate now. At any rate, the brushing helped calm her nerves. She and her two girlfriends would frequently brush each other's hair as a sign of trust and intimacy. They were all three so protective of their hair that they didn't let anyone else touch it except each other, and so she had associated the simple act of using a hairbrush with Miku and Luka, and being trapped here in this cold deserted laboratory she needed such comforts, taking them were she could. See missed her two idols terribly, missed them so much it hurt. She had to get back to them, no matter what Kiku said…

Finding a bit of code that caught her eye she stopped the cursor from scrolling and looked over it carefully. It looked like an emergency recall protocol in the event of serious system failure. If she suffered enough damage that she could no longer function well enough to process external stimuli but was intact enough to move on her own this protocol would activate and bring her back to a predetermined location. Looking at the information in the commands lines Haku didn't think that location was this lab, nor was it anywhere else she could immediately recognise either. She blinked, her hands slowing in their brushing as she considered what she was seeing. This gave her cause to wonder just how many secret lab facilities her parents had. She made a mental note to look into that later, but for right now it was less important than her coding. She thought the idea of an emergency recall protocol was a good one, but she had to change that location. The screen shifted as she mentally alt tabbed to her independent work space and she started the brush moving in her hair once more as the cursor jumped around in the screen at her will editing the code of her script. Once she had it where she wanted it she double checked the compilation error contingency code block as a precaution. She always glanced over that, but it always looked fine. Still, for all intents and purposes she was editing her own brain and she didn't think she could be too careful, and this code block should revert whatever changes the script made if her edits resulted in an error that wouldn't allow her programming to compile. Essentially it was a failsafe and the only one she really had the ability to set up at the moment. Under ideal circumstances she would have backed up her entire codebase to an external source before making any edits at all, but she didn't have that luxury here, not without extensive program modifications and a through look through the data banks and even potentially hardware rewiring in the lab to prepare for it, or falling that perhaps a thorough exploration of her parents laboratory to see if they had any facilities already available for that, but she was already ruining short on time as it was and she didn't want to spend the hours any of that would take. In the interests of escaping as soon as possible she would make do with these diagnostic terminals and her script.

Finishing her edits Haku saved the script, took a moment to let the butterflies in her stomach subside, then ran it. It seemed like she blinked and her eyes snapped back open, but as before maybe she'd never closed them? She couldn't tell, and she glanced at the system clock to see how long it had taken, hating how long it always ran, then she twisted around in her chair to glance at the elevator. No one there, no sign of entry. She turned to look back over her code, and saw it had been changed, updated with the alteration she'd made. The odd thought struck her that she didn't feel any different, never did feel any different, when her code was updated. There was no reason she should, and yet she kind of thought she should. It was a little strange, but then this whole thing was insane. She supposed that compared to the whole finding out she was a cyborg, being kidnapped and held against her will. Investigating her own death, and learning she was basically a walking supercomputer that feeling a little strange about programming herself wasn't that outlandish. She felt a surge of anxiety about it all, a feeling like she was on the verge of freaking out, and she closed her eyes and and tried to breathe evenly. The past week had been absolutely nuts and even through discovering she could mentally interface with technology was thrilling the rest of it had been crazy beyond imagining. Her own post mortem pictures haunted her whenever she shut her eyes, she couldn't stop shifting her body and flexing her joints in funny ways to see if she could feel the cybernetic implants inside her, and she missed her girlfriends so much it was hard to breathe at times. The only thing that kept her going was focusing on escape, the knowledge that if she could get out of here she could go to them.

The whir of a large motor starting up warned Haku even before she turned in her seat to look, her red eyes popping open to glance at the elevator. The indicator light on the panel showed it descending, and she hurriedly turned back to the terminal. A mere thought on her part was all it took to save and close everything that was open on the screen, and even as she did she reached behind her head to shift aside her snowy locks and pull the jack out of the port at the base of her skull. The feeling of metal sliding against metal buried in the back of her neck was weird, but no more so than any of the rest. She picked up the epidermal plug on the instrument tray beside the terminal where she'd left it, replaced it in the port to hide the plugin, let her hair fall back into place, then wound the cords back up beside the etched keyboard and turned off the screen. She just had time to stand up, replace the chair and move over to the large main network computer at the end of the room opposite the elevator before it dinged and slid open. Haku was grateful she'd taken such care to avoid the darkly beautiful woman seeing her working on herself but she fretted at how close of a call that had been. If her guess had been off by another minute or two she would have been in the middle of a diagnostic cycle just now with her code compiling as Kiku entered the lab. She'd have to be more careful, she was running out of time, she couldn't afford to be caught now. Not that she had any idea what Kiku would do of she did catch her, after all the redhead was the one that had suggested the possibility of reprogramming herself in the first place. But Kiku seemed… temperamental, even unstable at times. Her moods shifted on a dime and for all that she kept strictly to formal address with Haku she talked endlessly about how they were meant to be together and that Haku would understand in time, and she seemed completely intent on keeping her here against her will until she relented to Kiku's wishes. It was all just as crazy as all the rest.

Kiku was carrying a tray laden with little dishes of various kinds of foods, almost like a sampler tray of different meats and rice, tempura and even some seafood. The redhead didn't seem to know exactly what Haku liked and brought her a variety of things each time, and as a sort of form of protest she never ate more than a bite or two of any one thing, even tasting the stuff she didn't like, just to keep the darkly beautiful woman from learning anything more about her. Haku wasn't sure why it seemed important, but it did so she kept up her private little objection. She ate as little as possible too, another sort of resistance she thought. She'd been hungry for days doing this but she refused to let Kiku have even that much satisfaction. If the other woman noticed any of this she gave no sign and Haku couldn't tell if she was unaware of it all together or just not saying anything about it as part of some kind if return head game. Either way she watched her set the tray on of the tables nearby before turning her gaze back up to her, red-orange eyes narrowed a tiny bit in curiosity.

"How has your reading been going thus far, Yowane-san?" Kiku asked, her gaze flickering up toward the blank terminal. Haku hadn't been using it so there was nothing on it. "Discover anything interesting?" Haku gave a bare shrug of one shoulder without saying anything. Kiku's curious look gave way to a confused one and she switched tracks slightly. "Are you finding the answers you wanted?'

"I might find out more if I could access outside web pages." Haku gestured at the big terminal. "Being confined to this network limits the cross checking I can do."

The redhead narrowed her eyes and shook her head. "I've disconnected the internet connection outside the building. I'm sorry, but for now you will have to content yourself with local access." Haku hadn't really thought that would work but she'd hoped it would suffice as a diversionary answer to get Kiku to change topics without getting any actual information and that much at least seemed successful, the darkly beautiful woman turning to draw a couple of chairs up to the exam table she'd set the tray of food on and offering one to Haku. She wasn't sure why Kiku didn't lead them down the halls to the little break room type area she'd found on one of her forays to the bathroom, but the other woman was apparently not disturbed in the slightest at the prospect of eating on a table designed for medical or technological experimentation. Haku was however and she sat down a little rigidly, not wanting to take anything off the tray. Her stomach gurgled at the smells of food however, and suddenly her little form or protest seemed like a self imposed trap instead. She did her best to ignore her stomach and focused on Kiku instead. "Please, go ahead." Kiku said, gesturing at the tray.

"Thank you." Haku replied politely, but still she didn't reach for it. She thought her tummy might chew a hole in itself any minute.

The redhead frowned and waited but after several long minutes she shook her head and leaned back in her chair slightly. Her dark dress today was multiple shades of blacks and dark greys in formless textured pleats giving Haku the impression of a black storm cloud rolling by whenever Kiku moved, and her low dark voice held a note of impatience now. "Mother and father's plane will be landing tomorrow. Once they're back in the country they'll be coming straight here to see you."

"Why did they recall me so long before they were actually here?" Haku asked, genuinely interested in the answer. "I've been thinking it odd that they wouldn't come back first and then bring me here rather than have me sitting around for days waiting."

Kiku waved a dismissive hand at that. "They needed to accomplish a task overseas that had to be timed with your recall. It's not important for you to know."

Haku frowned. "And how do you know about it?" She asked, but didn't wait for the answer. "They told you about it since we've been back here."

"They tell me what I need to know to do what they want me to do."

So, Haku thought, there was something connected to what her father had ordered her to do when he accessed her over the phone and wherever they had been at that time. She couldn't remember what he'd made her do since she'd been in command interface mode, but whatever it was had to have had to do with the Vocaloids or he wouldn't have accessed he while she was there. It stood to reason he'd accessed her when she was where he'd needed her, somehow knowing what and where she was and took advantage of that. The question was, what had he made her do, and where had they been at the time. Haku carefully kept her face blank as she thought about all of this, not wanting to give Kiku any hint of what was going through her mind. "Why are you telling me this?"

"So that you can be ready when they come for you." Kiku offered a small smile, the expression looking a little odd on her face, as though the muscles of her lips weren't used to moving that way. "We may be moving locations when they get here. I know you don't know where we are now but-"

Haku cut her off with a contemptuous, "We're in a secret basement beneath an abandoned car storage warehouse, probably used to be an independent buyer and seller, most likely on the edge of the city."

The widening of Kiku's eyes in surprise was all the confirmation Haku needed. "How… how did you know that?"

With a slight sigh as though the answer were all too obvious she used the noise as a cover for her stomach growling. She reached out and took a piece of tempura with her fingers, not bothering with chopsticks or a dish, using it as a gesturing implement. "The office you kept me in when I was first here had a one man desk and a slightly faded square spot on the middle where a computer likely sat for some time before being removed and although there were filing cabinets against the walls they clanged like they were empty. The carpet was garish and gaudy but not heavily worn so most likely not heavily trafficked and the art was equally tasteless thus the room had been furnished to it's occupant's specific tastes. That office was the only room in the back area besides the single occupancy bathroom and little kitchenette we passed so only one person must have frequented the building with no need for staff. A private lot then used for storage. When we traversed the short hallway to the elevator I could smell faint traces of engine oil and gasoline but no real road grime or exhaust, so there are cars but not often moved though there are likely tools about for basic maintenance. Finally everything I saw up above had a fine layer of dust while nothing down here does and the material used in the walls of the building upstairs differs significantly from what's down here. I'd bet that at the time mother and father needed a secluded location to build a lab away from prying eyes so they bought a warehouse at random solely based on location needs, probably paying the owner for the building and contents alike in the interests of quickly acquiring the place rather than waiting for it to be cleared and prepared." She stopped gesturing with the tempura and popped it into her mouth, raising her eyebrows questioningly at Kiku, who was sitting there with her red-orange eyes round in shock at the deluge of deductive reasoning from her charge.

"I…" Kiku's mouth worked silently for a few moments not knowing what to say before finally shaking her head. "Mother and father said you were quick, but…" She paused a minute then shook her head again. "Well, regardless, I promise I'll stay with you, and help to take care of you."

Haku tried to keep her face blank as she swallowed her bite, but a scowl made it's way onto her brow and she tilted her head. "You mean in every way except the ones I want."

Kiku blinked in genuine surprise and glanced around. "You have space to call your own and I can bring you anything you might need. What more could you want?"

The incredulity of that statement momentarily floored Haku before she shook her head in disbelief. "What more? How about the freedom to come and go as I please? My own clothes instead of these medical coverings? Access to the outside world? To go home to my girlfriends?!" Her voice never rose in pitch yet as her anger grew hotter her tone grew colder and more intense.

Kiku's fist came down on the table with a bang jostling the tray of food dangerously. "You ARE home, Yowane-san! Everything you need is right here! I've been trying to show you that for days, and my patience is wearing thin!"

Haku's instinct was too recoil from the force of the blow but aside from jumping in surprise she drew herself up in her seat. "There is nothing I need here. _Nothing_." Her silvery voice was heavy with scorn and her scowl deepened, but still she didn't raise her voice. "I will _not_ be a weapon for mother and father, and I will not be your plaything."

"Play thing?!" The redhead snarled. "We were made for each other, Yowane-san!"

"Stop it!" Haku almost shrieked, just barely managing to keep her pitch from climbing. Somehow it felt as though shouting back at the other girl would lose her ground rather than gain it. "Stop saying that! Sharing creators doesn't make us destined to be together or something. Your my kidnapper, not my betrothed. I love Miku-chin and Luka-chin, not you, and-"

Kiku screamed and surged to her feet. "They are nothing compared to us! We are superior in every way! Together we wouldn't need anyone else! Not the Vocaloids, not mother and father, no one!"

"They will come for me." Haku got to her feet too, her snowy locks swirling around her. "They'll come and-"

"If they do, I'll kill them!" Kiku shrieked. "I'll kill them and I'll kill you for betraying me!"

"I can't betray what I was never beholden to in the first place." Haku said coldly, her anger like the deepest biting cold of a blizzard, and she was surprised at the winter's fury of her own tone, but that didn't stop her. "They're my everything, and it's you who are nothing compared to them. You're trash beside diamonds next to them. You- EYAHHHHH!" She let out a screech and dove to the side just in time to dodge the tray of food Kiku snatched up and flung at her with a cry of rage. Food splattered everywhere all over terminal as the screen shattered from the impact, the tray crashing to the floor with a clatter accompanied by the sound of raining glass.

Kiku was on top of her as she tried to rise from the table she'd landed against, bearing Haku down to the floor, pinning her and staring down at her, red-orange eyes like blazing furnaces. "I'll show you." The redhead growled. "I'll make you think only of me!" Holding Haku's hands against the floor she leaned down and pressed their lips together. Haku tried to shriek but all that came out through their locked lips was a muffled moan of protest. She thrashed and flailed but Kiku held on, keeping their lips together. This kiss was nothing like the tender loving embraces she'd shared with her girlfriends and she tried to turn her head away but the darkly beautiful woman kept their faces together. Haku's feet drummed the floor and panic surged through her, she'd never thought Kiku would force her to…! The redhead pulled back and looked down at her angrily. "I'll make you love me!" Her hands seemed to be everywhere, pulling at the medical coverings Haku had on, tugging them, trying to get them out of the way, and it was all she could do to keep her clothes in place.

"NO!" Haku did scream then, her blind panic bringing her energy levels up and her scream taking on a musical quality as a powerful pure white sonic wave ripped out from her body. In her position atop her Kiku was in point blank range and the blast set her airborne. Haku only cared that she wasn't pinned anymore and she scrambled backwards on her hands until she bumped up against the ruined network terminal, her hip slipping in some smeared food and her hand sliding on the tray where it had landed, and she huddled there, her heart pounding and her breath coming in panicked gasps of choked sobs.

Picking herself up near the elevator Kiku shook her ringing head trying to clear the dazed feeling from it. She waved her hand briefly in front of her face, as though trying to swipe away some sort of annoying message, but she came back into the corner of Haku's vision, a look on her face of… well 'regret' was perhaps too strong a word, but she definitely looked like she wanted to take back what had happened. That didn't matter though, it _had_ happened, and what could happen once could happen again. She started to move closer, "Yowane-san… I…"

"GET OUT!" Haku squeezed her red eyes closed, burying her face in her arms and just screamed over and over. "GET OUT! GET OUT! GET OUT GET OUT GET OUT!" She didn't stop screaming until she heard the elevator ding, and when she glanced up Kiku was gone. Being alone once more Haku slumped against the ruined console and began to cry in earnest. She wrapped her arms around herself, brought up images of Miku and Luka in her mind, and let the wails come, thinking only of how much she missed her girlfriends.

… … … … …

Luka ducked beneath a kick aimed at her head and spun around in a flurry of pink hair swirling about herself. Her brow was covered in sweat, her breathing was ragged, and her clothes clung to her uncomfortably but she couldn't stop moving for even a second. As soon as she did her foe would have the upper hand and it would all be over. She came around from her spin in a graceful pirouette and brought a hand up in an uppercut, humming a brief note as she did to cause a pink tinged sonic burst to erupt from her fist, but her opponent was as agile as she was, perhaps more so in all honesty, and both her fist and sonic burst found only air instead of a body as her foe twisted away to the side in a bending of limbs. Neither paused for even a heartbeat, and fists and elbows flew even as feet and knees lashed out while they continued their dance, whirling and twisting around, sound waves flying about and sonic booms bursting everywhere around them. It was a graceful dance, a deadly dance, a dance of life and death. They each did their best to try to read the other's movements, to watch for telling signs of the next attack from the other, to anticipate, to block, to counter, to continue the dance for another moment, then another, then another. They moved in unison, in harmony, in perfect tandem, each intent on bringing the other down. They danced for seconds, they danced for years. Eternity lasted seconds, moments stretched for eons, and they danced on. It didn't end until they finally exhausted eachother, which came nearly simultaneously. Drained of her endurance at last Luka threw a wide punch, which the other girl ducked under easily enough, but Miku's stamina was gone as well and the pretty girl lost her balance and plopped down on the rubbery mats covering the floor of the dance studio, rolling onto her back and breathing heavily. Her modest chest heaved as she gasped for air, and her light blue hair and blue and black spandex training outfit clung to her as much as Luka's own white and pink did. Even in this state, even under these circumstances, Luka couldn't fail to notice how beautiful her girlfriend was, even panting raggedy on the floor she was absolutely adorable. Everything about Hatsune Miku was cute…

"Woooooooooooooow!" Came a bubbling exclamation from the side of the studio and Luka turned her head around to see their spectators coming toward them. Fighting a wave of fatigue Luka tried to sit down on the mat beside Miku in as graceful and dignified a manner as she could manage, but her muscles felt as if they had all turned to jelly and she was afraid she ended up just plopping down as much as her girlfriend had. "I can't believe how fast you both are!" Gumi continued to gush. "So graceful, so gorgeous, and so agile! I'm sooooooooooooo jealous!"

"If you continue time apply yourself as you have, Megpoid-san, you can attain similar heights." Mokoto said encouragingly, the Vocaloid trainer moving up from the other side.

"Oh I'll never be as powerful as they are! Did you SEE that?!" Gumi seemed beside herself.

Teto shook her head. "They are both well out of our league, Hibiki-sensei."

"Your standing amongst others is not as important as how diligently you apply yourself to furthering your own abilities, to accomplishing your own goals, and to mastering your own art!" Gackpo said, gesturing expansively in a manner as grand as his tone of voice. "In effort there is liberation, in the pursuit of perfection lies true enlightenment, and beyond the surpassing of goals wait more limits to be broken! Always strive for more and you will never come up short!" Luka rolled her eyes and Miku groaned from her spot laying on the floor, but they all giggled anyway and Mokoto nodded and clapped Gackpo on the back.

"Camui-san is quite right, and I know all of you know it. You've all shown significant progress this past week and I'm proud of you all, even if I am concerned for you, but I understand the seriousness of the situation."

"Concerned?" Gumi asked, her short green hair swaying slightly above her light grey training outfit that fit her curvaceous figure like a glove. "Why?"

Teto's own training outfit was black as pitch and hid her more athletic build better than her companion's, but she poked her girlfriend in the side causing Gumi to squeak indignantly. "Do you ever pay attention?" The stoic redhead demanded. "The harder we push ourselves in bringing out our abilities as Vocaloids the more strain it puts on our bodies to adapt to our cybernetic systems. Implant rejection or hardware complications can arise, and we could seriously hurt ourselves."

Gumi rubbed indignantly at her side and glared at Teto. "Since when did you become such an expert?"

Teto rolled her eyes, "I pay attention to what Director and Doctor Hatsune say. They created us after all, they would know best what could happen."

"That all being as it may," Mokoto interjected smoothly, rich tenor voice bringing all eyes around attentively. "I believe Megurine-san and Hatsune-san could use a break."

Gackpo nodded and gestured toward the other end of the studio. "I shall spar with Gumi and Teto." He said, and the two girls nodded and followed him across the mats. Luka did her best to get her legs under herself and for a wonder they cooperated in so far as getting to her feet went. She felt a pang of sympathy for Miku as her lover groaned trying to sit up and she reached a hand down to help, not at all sure if she could actually support the other girl or not, but after the twintailed girl accepted the offered hand with her good hand, the other one still wrapped in bandages from being cut on her mirror, they managed to get themselves to the wall and sat in a couple of stiff chairs the others had vacated. Mokoto joined them and held out a couple of water bottles in offering, and they both took them gratefully. Luka took a few delicate swallows trying to maintain her poise at least somewhat, but Miku guzzled hers noisily. Luka stared at her until the light blue haired girl noticed and looked around.

"What?" She asked a little incensed.

Luka just smirked, giving one of her small private smiles. "Nothing, you just somehow manage to be cute even during indelicate moments."

Miku flushed though it didn't look a lot different from the disheveled look they were both sporting from their practice bout. "I… I'm thirsty. You wore me out." She mumbled.

"That's sort of the point isn't it?" Luka said gently, and her girlfriend nodded.

"I know. We have to be stronger so we can stand up to the witch to rescue Haku-chin." Miku set the water bottle against her leg and held it here. "I haven't forgotten." Her face tightened in consternation and Luka's heart went out to the other girl. She reached out and laid a hand on her arm and Miku looked up at her, green eyes meeting blue.

"We'll get her back, Miku-chin. I promise." Miku nodded and they both had to resist the urge to embrace. They weren't in private and that wouldn't have been proper, but there would be chance enough for that when they were alone later.

"Of course you will get her back." Mokoto said, lightening the mood a little bit. "Yowane-san is one of us. She belongs here, with her family." It was clear from the tone behind the words that that meant 'The Vocaloids' and they smiled back. "And she belongs here with the two beautiful women who love her most in the world, whom she loves equally as much." Mokoto added. Neither girl wanted to give voice to doubt but Luka supposed something of it must have shown on their faces because their instructor added, "She's confided in me a time or two,when she was uncertain or worried. It's plain to see how much she cares for you both. Never doubt that, not ever." They both swallowed and nodded.

"Never again." Luka whispered, and Miku nodded fervently, a few damp strands of her light blue hair shaking loose.

They shifted their attention to the trio at the other end of the room for a few moments as they sipped at their water and caught their breaths, watching Gumi and Teto face off against Gackpo. Luka found herself captivated for a moment watching, and to her it looked like art. Maybe it was the performer inside her; so much of herself was her art, so much of her art was herself, that she thought more and more that made her perceive the world around her in artistic terms. The Vocaloid's fighting style, the Odoru no Budo, was the martial art of dance. It was the martial art in dance, and it was the dance in martial arts. The line was so blurry, so indistinguishable where it was one or the other, that a trained martial artist and a professional career dancer could both see it and swear it was one or the other, yet only a Vocaloid could truly master it. Luka had thought for a long time it was because they were special, because they had some unique quality that other people lacked, but as she watched the others now it seemed more and more clear to her that the reality was that it was purely because of them being cyborgs. Muscle augmentation, agility enhancements, body alterations, mental capacity and processing speed… it was hard to see the art in that, and that was what Luka had a problem with. Miku had asked her the other day in a fit of hysteria if she was having an issue with all off this, and she hadn't known exactly how to explain it so she'd just said yes, but where as Miku seemed to be having difficulty with the concept of being a cyborg, Luka found her issue was more about what that meant to who she was as a person, how it changed the art that was her. She didn't know if it changed things or not, didn't know if it mattered or not, but the fact that she was… _designed_ rather than _gifted_ somehow seemed to cheapen everything to her. The romance of the notion was gone, the unique quality of being different had disappeared, at least different in a special way.

Watching her friends though… Luka found herself feeling almost hopeful. The way they moved, the way they flowed and danced… even if they weren't as powerful as she or Miku, Gackpo was right. They could still master themselves, they could still master their art. Even if everything else changed, they were still themselves inside. Had she not been trying to convince Miku of that for days now? And they were all trying, and making great strides. None of them had been tested since they'd been training this past week, pushing harder than Miku's parents thought was safe, intensively giving it their all day in and day out to the exclusion of most other concerns, but Luka could tell they had all made progress. She wouldn't have been surprised to find Gackpo had reached S Rank, and that Gumi and Teto had come far enough to reach the scales. They had trained with Haku early on and had worked with Mokoto since their arrival. They had to be at least D Rank the way they were spinning and twisting and ducking around their opponent, even if Gakpo was being careful not to overdo it with them. The thing that surprised Luka the most however was at how easily they seemed to be supporting each other, how smoothly they stepped in harmony. They were Resonating, certainly, and doing it as easily and naturally as she herself could with Miku, yet they were coordinating their efforts in a way that she and Miku never had. Oh, Resonating with her girlfriend was always a joy for Luka that was for sure, and she and Miku stepped and harmonized perfectly, yet Teto and Gumi took it a slight step further, supporting each other in both attack and defense. When one of them stepped back, the other moved up to meet Gackpo's sonic energies and counter them while the first circled for advantage, and when he looked as though he was going to gain the upper hand the supporter would step in and they would switch off, giving him a new target to worry about and dividing his attention. It was a strategy she'd never thought to try before, a way of dealing with a stronger opponent that was both effective and elegant. She glanced sideways at Miku and saw her watching with as much interest as she herself was. The motion of Luka's head turning caught Miku's attention and when their eyes met she gave a slight sideways head tilt at the pair and raised one eyebrow questioningly and her girlfriend nodded in agreement. They'd definitely think about trying that out, though Luka wondered at the logistics of it. Gumi and Teto could use their technique against Gackpo since he was stronger than them, but there weren't anyone stronger than her and Miku in the Vocaloids to test against. Well… except for Haku… but if she were here now none of this would be an issue.

"When did they start doing that?" Miku wondered aloud.

"Shortly after Yowane-san's awakening." Mokoto replied, and they both turned to look up at their instructor. "They felt that they were the weakest amongst you and wanted to get stronger faster to try and close gap in power between you. I suggested that raw power as not the only thing that mattered, and they began working on this technique."

Luka turned her head back around to watch the training once more, and as she did movement at the door of the studio caught her eye and she looked over to see Director Hatsune standing there. When he saw her looking he cast her a look over the rim of his glasses and gestured for her to come over. She nodded, nudged Miku to get her attention, who jumped slightly before seeing what it was. She stood, happy to find her legs willing to support her, and walked over with her girlfriend following along. When she reached the director he gave a little nod of acknowledgement to the two of them before speaking, pitching his deep bass voice low so it was a rumble rather than a boom. "Your training is progressing well?"

"Not as quickly as I would like, but we're doing what we can." Luka replied, and he nodded, casting a glance passed her in the direction of the sparing trio. She knew he couldn't see the sonic bursts each of their dance moves made. To him it would just look like they were weaving an intricate set of moves around each other. He looked back to the two girls before him.

"I came up to get you both to show you something, a development in the search." Hope flared in Luka's chest and she glanced at Miku to see it in her lover's green eyes too, but the director continued. "Yet when I passed the entry hall there was someone at the gate. Visitors asking for Yowane-san." They gave him reproachful looks and he grunted. "Asking for Haku." They smiled but then their pleasedness turned to puzzlement and they all blinked at each other in confusion. Director Hatsune sighed. "I see by your expressions you don't know who it could be?"

They both shook their heads at the question. "No, Haku-chin never mentioned anyone who might-" Miku began, then blinked and looked to Luka. "Wait, she went to lunch with that one girl from her old university didn't she?"

Luka nodded, "That's right… what did she say her name was?" She put a finger to her chin and tapped it thoughtfully. "Hmmm… Sa…? Sa-something…?"

"Sakine?" Director Hatsune asked.

Miku nodded and pointed at her father. "Yeah! That was it! Is that who she said she was?"

The director nodded. "She claims Yowane-san was supposed to call or text her for some sort of social engagement this past week and when that didn't happen she grew worried and came looking." The director narrowed his eyes, and Luka knew why. It was strictly against the Vocaloid rules to do anything that might risk exposing them, which included bringing civilians to the Compound or even giving out the address.

"I'm sure there has to be some sort of mistake." She told the director. "Haku-chin wouldn't do something to compromise us like this.

"I tend to agree with that." He replied. "Yet that does not change the fact that this young woman is here. Ordinarily we would question her, yet because of the circumstances I will let you two deal with them if you wish.

Miku was nodding but Luka blinked. "'Them?' Someone is with her?"

Motsu made a vague sort of gesture behind himself. "Some other girl with pale hair and eyes. Soft spoken, I didn't catch her name. Deal with them however you see fit, but make it clear this is not some place to visit at random. When you're done please come downstairs and I'll tell you what we've found."

The girls nodded and Director Hatsune pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose slightly with his first two fingers as he turned to head back deeper into the Compound. Miku looked up and tilted her head. "We can't greet them like this, we at least need a quick shower first."

Luka nodded in agreement. "I was just thinking the same thing.." They turned their heads to look up at Mokoto as their instructor came over.

"Is everything alright?"

"Yes Hibiki-sensei, but I'm afraid duty calls. We will need to continue training later." Luka told him. She didn't like the delay, didn't like anything that lm kept her from working toward rescuing Haku, but they couldn't ignore this security issue.

Mokoto nodded and gestured at the studio with a sweeping arm movement. "You can always train any time you'd like, but you're exhausted from sparing all morning and I was going to suggest a break anyway. I shall continue helping the others along a little while longer."

"Thank you, Hibiki-sensei." Luka said. She and Miku gave little bows with their hands before them, and the instructor gave a deep nod of the head and shoulders before moving off.

Luka turned to Miku and they shared a moment gazing into each other's eyes. Every time she looked at her girlfriend looking at her she felt nothing but pure love coming from her, and she did her best to imbue her own gaze with the same to convey it back. She felt urges surge up within her, felt her lips tingle with the desire for a kiss, felt her arms twitch a little in the want of an embrace, felt her lower regions… well. That last would have to wait. In the days immediately following Haku's departure they had both been far too depressed to want any physical intimacy, and in the recent days since finding out that their exotic snowy haired beauty hadn't left them of her own free will and in fact still loved them neither Miku nor she herself had felt right doing anything without Haku, at least not while she was in trouble. But Luka wanted too, oh gods did she want to, and judging by the hungry look in her lover's eyes Miku wanted it just as much. Luka gave her a small private smile, the kind she only ever felt comfortable giving her girlfriends in private moments and whispered, "That's real." A deep blush bloomed on Miku's cheeks but it didn't diminish the desire in her gaze, and she actually smiled back. Luka was immensely pleased to see Miku beginning to come to terms with what they were. Finding out they were cyborgs had hit the petty light blue haired girl hard, and they were both still trying to cope with it. They all were, their friends included. Luka reached out to take one of Miku's hands. "Come on, let's get cleaned up and changed and see what Haku-chin's friends want." Miku nodded and Luka led them out of the studio and down the halls.

Luka used to think it was odd that they had such a huge bathroom but that it never seemed to be in use with how many people were supposed be around the Compound, that there were supposed to be dozens of Vocaloids about but they never seemed to cross paths. The reality had turned out to be different than she'd thought, that the people that were around weren't Vocaloids at all and but staff working for the directors that kept mostly to the sublevels and that the Vocaloids were programmed to ignore them. It gave Luka the chills thinking that there were people that could be around her without her noticing as though they were ghosts or something. She couldn't help but wonder idly how many people could have been watching her at any given moment, or had in the past when she'd thought herself alone. The thought made her shiver uncomfortably and she wondered if there was something she could do about it.

Miku looked around as they entered the changing room and began peeling off her sweaty exercise clothes. "Ugh my whole body still feels like it's made of jello or something."

"I know what you mean." Luka replied, letting one eye drift over Miku's body as the slimmer girl bared herself. She was so cute, so pretty in every way. She watched and she began to strip as well. "My muscles feel like they're going to refuse to do what I want at any moment." She tossed her own work out clothes in the dirty hamper, pulled her hairtie out to let her cascading pink locks flow freely, and began to fish the soaps and shampoos out of the cubby she kept them in. Holding her hand out gingerly Miku carefully unwrapped the bandage around her hand, wincing a little as the last few inches came free. The cut from the glass was healing remarkably well but it was obviously still raw and Luka glanced at her in concern. "Is your hand bad today?"

The other girl shook her head a little as she tossed the bandage in a trash bin before turning back to her cubby. "No, not really." She said in a tone that, to Luka at least, sounded like a clear fib but sounded just as plainly like Miku didn't want to talk about it, so she let it go, for now at least. She finished with her own things and returned to the previous topic. "You've really been pressing me hard during our sparring sessions. I wonder how strong you've gotten."

She turned around with her bathing things and saw Miku just staring at her in the same way she herself had been looking at the light blue haired girl a moment before. They both blushed but Luka gave another of her small private smiles and Miku turned to hurriedly pull her own hairties out of her twintails then dig out her bath items. "No more than you have I'm sure. We haven't been measured since before this all went crazy."

They stepped through into the wash area together and took a couple of the stools close to the door and turned on the faucets. "I wonder where were at. I'd feel a lot better if I knew we were getting close to Juon-san's level."

Miku sprayed herself all over with hot water, a thoughtful expression on her face. "Do you think we've caught up to Haku-chin?"

Luka turned her own shower head on herself, her skin pebbling up a little as the water ran over her naked body. "I don't know… she was so strong after she woke up."

Miku nodded and put her shower head down and took up her body wash and a poof to lather with. "Yeah but she beat Juon-san with apparently no problem. So if we can get close to where she was maybe we can stand up to Juon-san."

Luka squeezed some of her own floral body wash onto a pink poof and rubbed it in a bit to get it sudsy as she thought about that. "After that day at the docks, Haku-chin measured at one hundred fifty three times normal human perception range."

Miku was slowly covering herself neck to toes in suds, running her poof along every part of her skin, and being especially careful of her injured hand, but her green eyes were narrowed in thought. "And we registered one forty one times." She said.

Watching her girlfriend drift her soft loofah ball all over herself without actually scrubbing because she was so deep in thought Luka let out a small sigh and scooched her stool over beside the other girl. Miku blinked at her in surprise as Luka set her own poof down and gently but deliberately took Miku's from her and began to gently wash her lover's side, starting just beneath her arm. Miku blushed more deeply than she had before at the intimacy of the touch but she didn't pull away. Infact she leaned over slightly so Luka could reach better, resting one elbow on her knee. "If Juon-san was stronger than we were at the time but weaker than Haku-chin, we could guess her strength to be somewhere around one hundred forty six or seven times normal." She said, sliding Miku's poof over her flat tummy several times then started moving it upward.

"Yeah that would make sense… but…" Miku hesitated, glancing down at herself and the loofah moving up her front. "If she was just playing along… like she was when she let us imprison her only to escape so easily later… I think tha-AAAH!" She let out a little moan as Luka slid the poof over one of her breasts, the the sudsy ball teased at her nipple. She squirmed on her stool and turned around to look at Luka. "H-Hey now! Watch what you're- AAH!" she moaned again as Luka slid it to the other breast with the same effect. She narrowed her green eyes at her lover and Luka just smiled at her. "I thought… I mean with Haku-chin gone…?"

Luka sighed and nodded. "I know, I'm sorry, it's just…" She flushed a bit herself now and leaned in to wrap her arms around Miku, who hugged her back. Their bare bodies slid together soapily, slick with suds as they were. "I miss her so much. With her gone there's a hole inside me and… and I just…" Her body yearned for affection, her heart cried out with the need for the love of her girlfriends. But Haku wasn't there, and Miku was, and she didn't know how to deal with that. Miku nodded against her shoulder, she understood. Of course she understood, she was feeling the exact same thing. Neither felt comfortable doing anything with Haku gone as she was, but they would rescue her and bring her home, and then… then it would all be okay…

"I love you." Miku murmured into her ear.

"I love you." Luka whispered back, and they held each other for a long few moments there in the bathroom before finally pulling apart to finish washing. They had to get out to see what was going on, they were keeping people waiting. They rinsed each other off when they were finished soaping up then dried off right there before going straight back into the changing room. They both cast longing looks toward the giant tub but there was no time for a soak now. They pulled their underwear on then slid silk blouses and pants over themselves, Miku's pants a dark grey and her blouse teal and a lighter grey swirled together, and Luka's pants black and her blouse pink and white fading together. She glanced over at her girlfriend and sighed. "I still can't believe you got me liking these stupid blouses."

Miku giggled and reached passed to Luka's cubby, withdrawing a white ribbon similar to the ones Haku usually wore. "They suit you, you look good." She picked up her own purple and blue brush and began running it through Luka's hair, and she shifted a bit so her lover could get a better angle at it. Her hair was still rather damp even after drying off but Miku was careful with it and she did enjoy letting her brush out her cascading pink locks, just as Miku enjoyed the same. They were both so careful of their hair, so protective of it, as was Haku. It was another form of intimacy between them. Once Miku had finished her hundred strokes she set her brush down and pulled Luka's hair into a ponytail high on the back of her head and bowed the white ribbon around it to hold it in place, then she let out a sigh somewhere between appreciation and vexation. Luka turned with a raised eyebrow.

"What's wrong?" She asked.

Miku shook her head. "It's… nothing." She said, casting her eyes to the side.

Luka put a finger under her chin and lifted Miku's eyes up to meet her own. "Tell me. Please?'

For a moment Miku looked like she might refuse, then she sighed and shook her head in frustration. "You're just so beautiful!" She blurted, and Luka blinked in confusion.

"I'm… sorry?" She didn't know what to say to that at first and Miku shook her head.

"No, that's not…" The other girl sighed, her frustration growing. "You're gorgeous, Luka-chin. Everything about you is so elegant, so refined. Every move you make, every tilt of your head, every shift of your limbs, even the tiniest eye movement is the epitome of poise and grace. You-"

"Miku-chin, stop…" Luka said, blushing furiously. She didn't think herself worthy of such praise, but the fact that her girlfriend saw her like that was enough to set her heart racing. "I'm not all that…"

"You are!" Miku cried out insistently. "You are! And…" She swallowed and shook her head. "And I'm not…"

Luka blinked. "What?"

"I'm not as beautiful as you!" There were tears in Miku's eyes and she wiped at them furiously. "I wish I was! You and Haku-chin both! She's just as radiant, just as gorgeous as you! It's… it's why Juon-san was able to play me so well I think."

"That's ridiculous, you're the prettiest girl I've ever seen!" Luka tried to object.

"Pretty isn't the same as beautiful!" Miku objected, her head coming up. "You and Haku-chin look like you belong together, look so natural beside each other, while I…" She choked on a sob and looked down at herself, staring at her more petite frame. "I'm so much… less… in every way…" She pushed her shoulders forward together, emphasizing her smaller breasts and narrower torso. "Juon-san said so, but… but it's true…"

"Miku-chin…" Luka said gently, and when her girlfriend tried to turn away she reached out to catch the light blue haired girl and pull her to her. Miku shifted into her arms instead, and she held her there. "'Not the same' doesn't mean 'worse' by any means. Just because your beauty is different than mine, is described in different terms, doesn't make it any less than mine, or inferior in any way."

Miku looked up and tilted her head at that. "You… you really think so?"

Luka smiled down at her. "I know so. You're pretty and adorable, Miku-chin. You're absolutely without question the cutest girl I've ever seen. Everything about you is cute and there are times I just can't believe how lucky I am to have your heart, as you have mine." Miku's cheeks ignited once more, mirroring Luka's own, and she leaned down to press a gentle kiss to her lips. They held like that for a long time, the soft tender embrace something they both needed after the week they'd had. It was sweet and tender and neither wanted to let go but when breathing finally became a problem they parted and Luka gently pushed Miku up, then took up her brush. "Now let me do your hair so we can get out there already."

Her lover smiled and turned around and Luka reached up to begin gently pulling her brush through her hair, and after a moment Miku murmured, "Thank you…" Luka squeezed her shoulder and kept brushing her hair. Once she had it glistening in the light she reached into Miku's cubby and took out some of the black hair clips with blue light up LED strips that Haku had given her for her birthday, split her hair into her customary twintails, and clipped them into place, then switched the LEDs on. Miku beamed up at her and leaned up to brush another kiss across her lips. That done, she leaned back into her girlfriend's cubby to withdraw a spare bandage for her hand, and Miku held still while Luka tenderly wrapped it for her, being careful to tuck it in securely away from where it was hurt.

Everything finished Luka smiled down at her and took her by the good hand, "Come on. Let's go see this Sakine-san." Miku nodded and they put their things away and left the bathroom.

Wherever Director Hatsune had told them to wait they found their visitors in the entry hall itself near the front doors, and they didn't seem happy with each other right that moment. The one with the short brown hair who must have been Sakine-san was gesturing around at the Compound in general as they came in. "-can't leave or Sarge will have a fit!"

"Well… but I mean… I just have a bad feeling about this…" The girl with long pale hair and pale eyes was saying, and Luka and Miku both recognized her.

"Aria-san?!" Miku burst out, and the other two girls spun around in surprise, both flushing a bit. "It is you! What are you doing here?"

"Oh! Uhm... I…" Ia stuttered then flushed more deeply and looked to her companion for help.

The girl with short brown hair stepped forward, tugging her sleeveless red blazer to adjust it slightly as she did, and then folded her hands in front of herself and bowed forward slightly. "Hello, my name is Sakine Meiko, I'm a friend of Yowane Haku's."

Miku and Luka came further into the middle of the entry hall and emulated the bow forward slightly. "I am Megurine Luka." She told them., though she assumed they knew that. She always assumed everyone knew her before she said anything, not out of vanity, just because she was famous.

"Hatsune Miku." The twintailed girl said.

"Yes, of course. World famous idols." Meiko's lips curved in a smirk. "And Haku's girlfriends, no less."

Miku gave a start of surprise and Luka's eyes widened at that. "She… she told you that?"

Meiko let out a pleasant laugh and shook her head. "Not on purpose, no, but I have eyes, and besides, Ia-tan saw you three together in the store that day." Luka traded worried glances with Miku beside her and Meiko laughed again. "It's fine, don't worry about it. I'm not offended in the least, and besides it's public knowledge now, no?"

"It is?" Luka asked tentatively, feeling as though she were receiving news of the worst sort.

Meiko nodded, "You didn't know?" She slid her phone out of her pocket, woke the screen up, and tapped at it a few times bringing up a web page, then turned it around to show them. It was a forum page about celebrities and this thread was titled " _Megurine Luka a lesbian?!_ " The main article was rather long and in depth but it basically recounted the day in the mall where Luka had publicly declared her name to get what she wanted, her way through a blocking security guard when they'd thought Haku head been hurt falling from a mall floor banister a couple of stories up. She'd announced Haku was her girlfriend to be let through, and they had all known it would end up on the internet. Only Haku hadn't fallen, she'd jumped, and it hadn't been a couple of floors up, it had been five. She'd saved the child that had been being chased by a souldrinker, but neither Miku nor Luka had known what she was doing or that she'd been fine in her landing, and Luka had panicked. In her mind's eye she could still see the white haired beauty lying prone on cracked stonework floor, holding very still… the mental image still made her shiver, no matter that Haku had been fine. Beneath the article were a plethora of comments, ranging anywhere from " _This is fake, there's no way she's gay._ " to " _Good for her! We need more openly gay public figures to look up to!_ " and even the ones she feared but knew would be there, the ones that ran among the lines of " _This is disgusting and repulsive, I'm never going to another one of her concerts!_ " Luka looked away feeling tears sting her eyes but Meiko wasn't done. "There's even an article on all three of you." She said, tapping at her phone and showing it again. A different site with different colors but this thread was titled " _Megurine Luka and Hatsune Miku total lesbos!_ " It was written in extremely distasteful and disrespectful words, talking about how they were complete dykes together with some third floozy and all they needed was a good dicking to set them straight, but it recounted the day in the mall when they'd been buying Haku's new phone and the two guys had come in hitting on them. They'd gotten so pushy that Miku had ended up kissing her to show them they weren't interested, but it was another public occurrence to add to things. The comments here ran similarly to the first, this time expanding to include Miku.

"It's worse than I'd thought…" Luka muttered, trying very hard not to cry. She felt Miku's hand squeeze hers and she squeezed back, but when she looked up her girlfriend's eyes shone damply too.

"I wouldn't worry too much about it." Meiko said, turning off her phone screen and sliding it back into a pocket. "The internet has a way of being out of control with these things. If you avoid any further public displays it will probably just blow over as rumor eventually."

"And if we don't…?" Luka wanted to know.

Meiko blinked at that. "You mean publicly acknowledge it?" Luka nodded and the short haired girl shrugged. "Who knows? It would depend on your fanbase and how they take it. It could be fine… or…" she trailed off, but they all knew what the 'or' was. Or it could ruin her.

They all fell silent for a time before Miku looked up suddenly. "Oh, we're being rude, I'm sorry. We should invite you in… but uhm…" she glanced around then shook her head apologetically. "I'm sorry but we can't actually accept visitors here. It's a private compound and not open to anyone. If you'd like we can maybe go somewhere and talk?"

"A private compound not open to the public, but owned by the Hatsune family, yet you can't allow us in?' Meiko asked, an odd look on her face.

"Meiko-tan…" Ia murmured softly, speaking for the first time since they'd come in to greet them, but Meiko shifted tracks smoothly and gave a little bow.

"I'm sorry, now I'm being rude, please forgive me." She said, her tone pleasant enough, but her dark eyes spoke volumes, and suddenly Luka felt decidedly uncomfortable. There was something… off about this whole thing, something not right at all, but she couldn't quite put her finger on it.

"May I ask what you're doing here?" She kept her voice polite but stern, yet it was Ia who answered.

"Please forgive the intrusion, Megurine-san, Hatsune-san. We were just concerned about Yowane-san when she stopped answering Meiko-tan's texts. Is she okay?"

"She's… not here right now…" Miku said evasively, and the other two narrowed their eyes suspiciously, but Luka distracted them before they could dig for more.

"How did you find this place anyway?" She asked bluntly.

Ia dropped her eyes and Meiko turned her gaze upward taking her turn at being evasive. "Oh… through Haku…"

Luka thought it strange that Meiko was using Haku's first name but not any sort of honorific, but she supposed that maybe they just hadn't gotten that close yet. What really bothered her though was the lie. She would have bet anything that Haku hadn't told anyone about the Vocaloid Compound, which meant there was more to it than Meiko was letting on, especially with how uncomfortable Ia was looking in that moment, the pale haired girl all but shuffling her feet as she stared at the floor fidgeting nervously. There was something going on here, something… she didn't know. She wished she had her white haired beauty's insight, but she just couldn't see whatever it was. She knew one thing for sure though; this Sakine Meiko was bad news for them. She didn't understand what Aria Ia was doing with her, but Meiko meant trouble, she could feel it to her core. She kept her face completely blank as all of this ran through her mind so as not to give away any hint of what she was thinking, tilting her head curiously at the dark haired girl. She could feel agitation from Miku, and she realized suddenly it was something akin to the sense she had of her when they were Resonating, only they weren't right that moment. Still, she knew innately that it was Miku's anxiety, not her own, that she was feeling. It was an interesting curiosity, and she took a moment to deliberately calm herself, wondering if her girlfriend were reacting to her own heightened sense of foreboding. The anxiety she was feeling from her lover reduced a bit, and Luka would have turned to look at Miku in surprise were they not presently confronted with a problem. She'd have to ask her about it later.

"Well," Luka said, her crystal voice seeming to ring off the polished floor of the entryway they were standing in, her tone laden with authority she really didn't have over the others, yet in her experience if you assumed authority others tended to follow, at least at first. "Haku-chin is not here right now, and we really can't say for sure exactly why she isn't answering her texts at the moment." Meiko's head came down as Ia's came up and they both stared at her, but Luka was not feeling particularly accommodating of their games right then. "I'm very sorry if you've come for nothing, really, but I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

There was a tense silence that followed for a long few moments as everyone seemed to look at everyone else to see what the others would do. More accurately, she stared at Meiko and Meiko at her as though sizing each other up. Miku glanced at Luka nervously and Ia was casting worried looks at Meiko. After a long heavy pause Meiko took a few slow deliberate steps forward so she was just within arms reach, but Luka didn't step back, didn't flinch in the slightest. She was the calm before the storm right then, her nerves were as steel. This woman was a threat to Haku, and it would have taken divine intervention to uproot her from that spot in that moment. Meiko narrowed her dark eyes and spoke in a soft not quite threatening tone. "I am here to help, Megurine-san. There is no reason not to trust me."

Luka smiled, a cold withering smile that offered no reassurance. "Based on what you've told me, it seems there's little trust to be had on both sides." She paused as Meiko's eyes narrowed even further then added, "Unless you'd care to tell me who this Sarge is, and why he's sent you here…?"

The short haired girl's eyes widened in surprise and Ia's pale ones looked on the edge off panic. She moved up to Meiko's side and began tugging on her arm insistently. "Meiko-tan please, we have to go."

Meiko shook her arm trying to free it but the pale haired girl stubbornly held on and she sighed and cast a final look at Luka. "If things are bad for you, for Haku, I could help. That's all I was trying to say."

"I promise you, the kind of trouble we might have isn't the kind you could help with." Luka replied smoothly.

"I promise you it is." Meiko replied darkly. "Help, or hinder."

Ia positively pulled at her companion and Meiko allowed herself to be pulled toward the doors. She looked like she had more she wanted to say but she bit her lip and let the other girl pull her out the big front doors which swung closed behind them with a loud thud without another word. Luka took a deep breath and felt arms go around her and she twisted in Miku's grasp to return the hug. "You're so strong, Luka-chin, so confident." Her girlfriend told her in a comforting way, trying to sooth her nerves. "You make me feel so safe, I wish had half as much resolve as you."

"I won't let anyone threaten the women I love." Luka murmured. "Not anyone. Not ever again." She felt Miku's hands stroking her back and hair soothingly and squeezed her around the waist in return, getting a whiff of Miku's body wash and shampoo from their recent bath. They stood there each enjoying the other's embrace for a long while before Luka finally pulled back a bit and took the twintailed girl's hand up in hers once more. She really enjoyed holding hands, and she thought Miku did too. "Come on, let's see what your dad wanted."

They found Director Hatsune through the security door that led deeper into the Compound and down a flight of stairs that was usually only used for security or maintenance access. Whatever Haku had done to their mainframe and power grid while under Kiku's control the engineers were still trying to undo a week later. They had basic emergency power from a backup generator for things like lights and hot water and doors but that was about all. A suggestion had been raised that they connect to the city's power grid until they got their reactor back up and running but Miku's parents hadn't liked the idea. The sudden power draw on the public network could draw unwanted attention. So they made do with basic lights and using the stairs until that got resolved. They descended into the first sublevel where all the souldrinker detection monitors and tech was set up, all of it dark now with the power out. Luka shivered at the thought of how much souldrinker activity could be going on without their knowledge right then, but aside from wandering the streets of the huge city blindly hoping to run into the creatures by happenstance they're wasn't much they could do. The two girl's turned to the side to move into one of the analysis rooms where they could see Motsu leaning over a table. The lights were on and he had a laptop set up which surprisingly showed something besides a blue error screen.

"What's going on… dad?" Miku said obviously trying to sound like her more usual perky self but she fell short, awkwardly tripping at the end with a look on her face as though she wasn't quite sure yet if she wanted to say ' daddy' the way she used to, before finding out what she was. It was still hitting her hard, but she was slowly coming around. The director's expression hardened at the address but plainly he meant to give his daughter all the room she needed in this, and Luka felt an impulse strike her, an odd humor popping up inside her to help ease the situation, and she squeezed Miku's hand still in hers and smiled at the towering man.

"Yeah, what news, dad?" Her crystal voice was not as suited to bubbly cheer as Miku's more naturally chime like tones but she felt like she managed and they both blinked at her in surprise. Then Miku put her free hand up to cover her mouth in a fit of giggles and even Motsu allowed a rare chuckle to escape his lips. He held out a hand invitingly for them to come see what he was looking at.

"My daughters, we have made some progress. You've dealt with Yowane… ahem." He cleared his throat when they glanced at him. He was clearly still adjusting to things as well. "With Haku's friends?"

"They claimed to be here out of concern for Haku-chin," Luka said carefully, "but they wouldn't answer my questions about how they knew to come here or what their intentions were. I had a bad feeling about it so I asked them to leave."

"We did like you said, told them this was private property and that they couldn't be around." Miku added and her father nodded.

"Good. If anything more comes of this we'll have to deal with it later." He gestured at the screen. "Look at this."

They made their way around to the front of the laptop and they both let out little gaps of surprise and Miku pointed down at the broken up smartphone sitting beside it. "Is that Haku-chin's old iPhone?" The director nodded but before he could say anything else Luka gestured at the picture on the screen of the computer. It was distorted rather badly, looking as though the data were partially corrupted and the edges all fuzzy from motion blur, but there was no doubt about it.

"That picture! Is that… it looks like the van that Juon-san was driving the day she attacked Haku-chin."

Director Hatsune smiled, "I was hoping you would say that. Yes, we thought it might be a connection, and your identification confirms it."

Miku gave a little hop in place of excitement, "How'd you get it?!"

"After Juon-san's initial attack on Yowa- on Haku," he only stumbled a little bit this time, "I asked you for her damaged phone." They nodded slowly, remembering that day still made them uneasy. "I thought perhaps there might have been some useful data we could yet recover from it, and we did recover quite a bit of information from it, mostly pictures and music and the like, but I'd had no idea how useful." He gestured at the laptop screen at the blurry distorted image of the front of the white van parked in an alley opening. "One of our systems technicians was able to recover this image earlier today."

"Daddy, how come we never really see your staff?" Miku asked abruptly, the mention of the systems administrators making her look up. She was clearly missing the implications of the picture and Luka felt mildly annoyed wanting to know more about the van, but she kept her face blank and didn't object. She was just happy to hear Miku so naturally address her father again, though she doubted the twintailed girl herself had noticed.

"You recall that we told you before that your programming allows us to keep you from noticing things?" He asked, and they both winced at that but Miku nodded. "We thought it best at the time to keep your interactions with them at a minimum in the interests of minimizing confusion at who the strangers in the building were. You see them but dismiss them when they're out of sight, and they've all been ordered not to talk to you unless necessary."

Luka frowned at that, "That seems… convoluted. Forgive me, but I'm not sure I agree with that need."

Motsu nodded, "In hindsight it was not a very wise decision, but everything was so chaotic a few years ago and we were trying to stabilize a brand new and unprecedented medical and technological breakthrough. Mistakes were made, and all I can do now is try to correct them for you girls. I am doing my best, I promise."

"So you can let us notice them now?" Miku asked.

The director shook his head at that, "Whatever Haku did to your programming to lock us out, your mother and I can't access you to change it. Unless she comes home so we can talk all of this over, or unless we spend who knows how many hours trying to hack into your systems, I'm afraid making any changes is beyond us at the moment."

They all fell silent for a minute in reflection, and Luka found herself with an odd worry of a kind she hadn't had before when all of this came about. She absolutely did not like the fact that she had an off switch for all intents and purposes; the idea made her feel powerless in a way and sent chills up her spine. Yet thinking about it from the other side of things, the fact remained that she was a cyborg. She did have cybernetic systems and technological parts inside her. Surely that meant that she had certain systems maintenance requirements and special medical needs? If something went wrong right now, and Miku's parents couldn't access her to fix it, could she die because Haku had locked them out when they could otherwise have saved her? That thought was just as scary as the off switch in a different way… As soon as they rescued Haku they were going to all need to sit down and talk things over.

"Tell us why this picture is important." Luka said, gesturing at the image to get the subject back on track. Director Hatsune pointed at the center of the front of the van and abruptly she understood. "The license plate is readable…"

He nodded at her realization. "Our theory is that Haku was trying to take a picture of something else when Juon-san surprised her and she spun while snapping the shutter, hence the motion blur. But yes, the license plate."

Miku began to bounce excitedly from foot to foot. "Can you trace it?! Find out where Haku-chin is?!"

Her father nodded at her and put a hand on her head. "That's exactly what we're trying to do now. The trace will take some time, and there's no guarantees in this, but it's our best lead. As soon as we get our mainframe back up and running we'll be able to trace it. Our techs think sometime tomorrow we'll be back up and online."

Sometime tomorrow… Luka felt both hope and impatience surge within her breast strong enough that she had to swallow hard to keep from gasping with the force of the emotion. She looked to Miku with a meaningful gaze, and her girlfriend looked back, green eyes blazing. "One more day." She said firmly, and the twintailed girl nodded emphatically, her light blue hair bouncing about. "One more day and we'll have Haku-chin back."


	24. Vocaloid Academy Chapter 24

The winter air was so cold that despite the sun standing above the horizon it felt like it should have been snowing. The entirety of the abandoned car warehouse below was swarming with souldrinkers. Some of them weren't visible to the eye, probably hiding in nooks and crannies of the huge parking structure or inside dumpsters or tucked up in overhangs or the like, many were milling about in masses thick enough to blot out swathes of the property, but this close Luka could feel their presence, dozens of them scattered all over the place. She wondered idly how she could sense the creatures if their gifts as Vocaloids were technological in nature, but that wasn't important right now and she let the thought drift away. From her vantage point up the road a little way that wound down toward the property below she could see the building itself, and she leaned against the hood of the Ferrari as she watched the building speculatively. The license plate trace on the white van from the picture recovered from Haku's old iPhone that Kiku had been driving was registered to this vehicle storage warehouse, and if Haku was down there then the darkly beautiful woman had her locked inside somewhere. She had to resist the urge to rush down there immediately and tear the place apart looking for her exotic white haired beauty, so strong was the urge that it was all she could do to keep herself leaning against the four eighty-eight to observe. Preparation was key, and the bottom line was that she would not risk Haku's life by charging in blindly. They had waited for almost two weeks after the snowy haired girl had been kidnapped to find her, they could wait a few minutes longer.

"There's practically a batallion down there." Miku murmured beside her from her spot leaning against the Ferrari at her side. She could feel the souldrinkers as well as Luka herself could of course, and the situation seemed bleak. "The place is like a fortress. They could come from anywhere at any time; a building like that has got to have like a hundred places to hide."

Luka nodded at that having been thinking along the same lines, watching for any sign of movement. There was none apparent, but who knew what Kiku had programmed her little army to do. "It doesn't look good does it…"

"Like, okay, I don't want to be the one to rain on the parade here," Gumi said, her voice hiding her obvious worry with simple emphatic tones, "But we might just be outmatched here." Standing a couple of paces off she tugged at her tight dark green t-shirt self consciously. They were all wearing similar outfits: dark tight shirts and black pants and boots for ease of movement. Hunting outfits, battle garments. Luka wished they could have had coats for how cold it was, but they couldn't afford anything hampering their freedom of movement today. Once the fighting started the adrenaline would keep them warm.

"As indelicately put as that was," Teto said from beside her girlfriend in exasperation, "She has a point. Charging in to that would be suicide."

Miku rubbed at the edge of the palm of her injured hand with the opposite palm through the fingerless black gloves she was wearing. Luka knew her hand was still wrapped in a bandage beneath the glove, and though her cut was getting close to healed it was itching at her fiercely. "We're going down there, somehow." She told them. "Luka-chin and I have to."

"It's obviously far more dangerous than we thought." Gackpo pointed out from where he was leaning against the big black SUV he and the other two girls had followed Miku and Luka in on the way here. "Perhaps it would be wise to return to the Compound and regroup? Formulate a new plan?"

Luka shook her head, that was out of the question. She couldn't leave Haku down there, not after coming this close to her, not after everything they'd gone thorough. "Nothing will change in our favor by leaving, but they can always grow in numbers if we do. And if they've spotted us and we retreat now they'll have time to prepare for our return. Like it or not this is our only chance."

"Luka-chin and I have to do this." Miku told them. "But you three don't." She shifted uncomfortably against the the car and looked at each of their friends. "We would understand if you didn't."

She would understand, Luka thought to herself. Their training these past weeks had been more intense than any other time during her entire tenure as a Vocaloid and she knew her power had grown by leaps and bounds even if they hadn't spared the time to test and see exactly how much, and she wasn't the only one. Miku had kept up with her the entire time, and their friends had grown as well. But they weren't as strong as she and Miku were, and she worried that the two of them hadn't even made it far enough to challenge Kiku. She tugged unnecessarily at her own fingerless black gloves but she didn't say any of this. She didn't have to, they knew it already. The other Vocaloids all turned their attention to the building down the road some distance off, thinking. It really did look hopeless, the numbers overwhelming, and Kiku's earlier threats about killing them if they tried this on top of it… they were likely walking in to their deaths. But Miku was right, the two of them had to go down there. It was Haku-chin after all. Haku-chin…

"If we split up and circle the warehouse," Gackpo said slowly, reaching his arms around to clasp behind his back, the motion shifting his dark togi about himself. "Then we might seize an advantage through containment. We can spread their forces out and force them to face us on multiple fronts." Luka had the random thought looking at him now offering battle suggestions dressed as he was that he lacked only a katana to carry off the look of a samurai.

"If we go in all together we could all combine our powers though." Gumi said, tilting her head a bit in thought. "Multi Resonance would blow them all away, and we could easily overwhelm the witch."

"Channeling that much power would quickly drain us though." Teto countered, folding her arms over her chest. "With no guarantee that Juon-san would even come out to face us, or that we'd root out all of the souldrinkers before we collapsed from exhaustion."

"We don't want to leave ourselves bereft of strength and prone for easy pickings before our enemy." Gackpo agreed. "They have the advantage of both numbers and terrain."

"This is a battle of attrition." Luka interjected smoothly. "When a smaller group is vastly outnumbered it only makes sense that we do as much damage as we can with as little risk to ourselves as possible. Gackpo is right, we should spread out, circle the warehouse, and draw them out. Engage them a few at a time and whittle them down." They all nodded and she stood up, tugging down her tight red sleeveless shirt, the same dark red one she'd been wearing when she first met Haku that night on the train. "And whatever you do, do not engage Juon Kiku. She's dangerous, if you see her you come get Miku or I." They nodded again and Luka slipped her phone out of her pocket to check the time. "We'll take thirty minutes to get into position, then we'll attack at the turn of the hour. If anything goes wrong, anything at all, you run. Get back to your car and get away."

They didn't like that and tried to object, but the grim reality was that it only took a souldrinker a matter of seconds to kill, and Kiku was far more dangerous than any mere souldrinker. If anything did go wrong there was nothing any of them would be in a position to do to help anyway, and when Luka made that clear they all agreed and moved off to take their positions. With that she turned to her girlfriend to find Miku looking up at her with big green eyes that Luka was sure she could have spent eternity losing herself just starting into. She reached up to touch Miku's face tenderly and put her other hand around her waist, drawing the shorter girl to her, and felt the twintailed girl's hand on her own cheek in response. "We'll get her back." The shorter girl said. "We will."

"And if we don't…" Luka started to say, and Miku shook her head.

"I don't want to think about 'if.'" She said, then after a moment let out a little sigh. "But if we don't…"

"It's better to die here than abandon her. At least this way we fight for her, fight for us." Luka's hand clenched into a first behind Miku's back. "I'll never just stand by and let things happen again. I'll fight for us, every time." She glanced down the hill. "Even if…"

Miku followed her gaze with her own eyes. "Even if the odds are totally insane." She finished. After a moment she looked back up to Luka. "Do you think it's wrong of us to risk Gumi and Teto and Gackpo's lives in this?" She asked, biting at her lip in concern. "I feel like it's… I dunno, bad or selfish or something to do so."

"We explained the risks, they made the choice, we didn't make it for them." Luka replied carefully. "I think it would be wrong to deny them the freedom to walk the path they want to walk."

"Even if it leads them into oblivion with us?"

They stared into each other's eyes for a very long time, then Luka leaned in to kiss Miku. Soft lips met soft lips and they held each other's embrace for a long time just trying to absorb every feeling of love they could from the other. Luka lost track of everything except her girlfriend, the rest of the world falling away and being replaced by Miku's presence, the feel of her body pressed close to her own, the smell of her floral body wash and expensive perfume, the sound of her little sighs against her lips. When it became hard to breathe she finally pulled back, and they both regarded the other through half lidded eyes of passion. "We aren't going to oblivion." Luka panted breathlessly from the kiss. "We're going to save Haku-chin."

… … … … …

Having gotten it into her head to study the entirety of her parent's files, at least whatever was here, but lacking enough time to read through them all manually, Haku had started downloading them in chunks. After more trial and error and experimenting with her "cybervision" as she was calling it privately to herself, the visible light particles her biological brain was interpreting when she was "seeing" the datastream in the air of the Wi-Fi signal she'd managed to connect to, she'd managed to experiment with that premise in her mind's eye to develop what looked like to her (though no one else would be able to see it as it was taking place entirely in her own head) as though a floating 3D computer interface were superimposed over her vision when she wanted to access her own files inside her cybernetic chip storage, allowing her to navigate her own data in that way just like a regular terminal. It was freaky and fantastic and scary and fun and amazing all at the same time. A significant portion of her time spent in this prison of a laboratory had gone in to experiment within her cybernetic abilities. Now that she was aware of them, now that she knew she could consciously direct them, she'd found there were any number of things she could do. She'd become aware of the horde of souldrinkers on the surface above her, for one thing, and she'd managed to tap in to basically every system connected to the network for this warehouse and laboratory for another, and it was massive, running nearly two kilometers under ground with a huge power generator at the bottom. She no longer had to go from room to room to check the computers there if she didn't want to, she could simply access them with her super powerful custom built wireless connection her parents had designed and built from scratch for her. She'd even managed to tap the security camera network through the security station she hadn't known was there or how to find until she'd connected through the security terminal and found the physical location of the wired signal. That had been a crazy moment all on it's own; accessing video cameras was like suddenly having a TV pop up in your brain, except that she could project the video feed in her mind's eye as easily as her files. She checked the camera feeds from time to time too, just to see what it looked like outside at whatever time of day it was. She always knew the time, but being stuck in a basement deprived her of fresh outside air. She felt cooped up, trapped, but she'd made the most out of her time here, she was sure of that…

Haku had made as many changes to her code as she could reasonably do within the limited scope of her script. She would need more time and more network access to do what she really wanted to do, but she had neither. If Kiku was to be believed her parents would be arriving some time today and she had to be ready to run as soon as they showed up. What she really wanted to do was to get to the upper levels, but every time she approached the elevator with the intent of escaping she physically could not make herself go against whatever order her father had given her. She'd tried several times to do it, and had searched her code for it as much as she'd dared take the time to, but either the command was stored in some active memory or she was just going to fast over her programming in her limited time and was missing it. Either way for all the changes she'd managed to make that hadn't been one of them. And the more she was trapped down here the more this place was beginning to make her extremely uncomfortable. She'd spent increasing amounts of time in the bathroom because of how comforting it was to be in the warm water; it reminded her of her days at the Vocaloid Compound, reminded her of soaking in the tub with her girlfriends, and that had helped stave off the insanity she was beginning to feel at the edges of her mind trying to creep in. Cabin fever was becoming a very real danger and she missed her loves so bad it was a near constant physical ache within her chest, and after awhile even the water had lost the ability to stave it off.

Walking out into the main lab area she'd spent so much time in she looked around, reflexively glancing over surfaces to check for food left out or other signs that Kiku had been there. Ever since the previous day when the darkly beautiful woman had tried to… to… force herself on her… Haku still shuddered just thinking about it, but since then Kiku hadn't come down to socialize, just drop off food and left. Haku had had to come check for food when the gnawing in her stomach grew too insistent to ignore, but for the most part she'd stayed out of the main room as much as possible, not wanting to see the food stained broken network monitor at the front of the room, not wanting to think about what had almost happened. She winced just thinking back on it, reaching a hand up to brush at her lips where the redhead had stolen a kiss. Her lips had been soft but her manner had been rough and the thought of being forced… She shivered and turned around to leave the main room again, then stopped and turned back as a blinking indicator light on the large main terminal controls caught her attention. Something was triggering some sort of sensor, and the terminal would have shown it, but it had been smashed by the tray Kiku had thrown. Lifting her hands up in front of her face, she let the 3D images pop up in her mind's eye. She didn't need to wave her hands around of course but the motions sometimes helped to focus her and as far as she could see she was physically opening a folder to withdraw a video file. She tapped the air where the network terminal was with one hand, tapped a blank video file with the other, then pointed her fingers together. Whatever coding linked the Vocaloid chip in her mind to her biological brain interpreted this correctly and a data stream appeared flowing from one to the other and the video file lit up, displaying everything the network terminal had to show. It's screen may have been destroyed, but the computer was intact, and to her view she could see everything on it, her own personalized 3D projection screen overlay. She was designed to interface with any known system after all, her father's notes had said so, so it was no surprise to her.

It was some sort of perimeter alarm that had been tripped, the security station feeding the data to the main console to alert whoever was on duty. A set up probably left over from when her parents had regularly inhabited this lab she guessed, but now it was alerting her. The signal was going nowhere else, so unless Kiku was physically at the security station she wouldn't know anything about this, at least not from the security systems. Blinking in confusion Haku tilted her head and found a security camera feed coming up alongside the main network information and she opened that in her mind's eye too. The camera feed showed the beginnings of dusk outside, the sun only just sinking toward the horizon leaving enough light to see but it was just beginning to fade. She watched the active display for several moments before whatever had triggered the perimeter alarms tripped them again, and she saw it. She saw it, and it felt like her heart leapt into her throat. A flash of pink out amongst the plain overgrown abandoned lot. She watched more intently, wondering if the loneliness had made her delirious, She held her breath, hoping, praying… and then she saw it again, another flash, and the camera picked up a body falling from an overhang on the edge of the building. She wasn't imagining it! They were here! They were here, and they were trying to rescue her! They did love her! She felt overwhelmed, Kiku was wrong! Kiku…

Whatever feelings of relief and joy she had been feeling were suddenly squelched as she remembered what the darkly beautiful woman had said the previous day, and Haku spurred herself to action. She had to do everything she could to buy as much time for her girlfriends as possible. Sliding the 3D "image" of the main terminal into the background (it looked to her view as though it simply floated off a few meters away from her and miniaturized, spinning idly until wanted again) she brought up a seperate view of the security station and interfaced with it directly. It woke up from it's sleeping state, so apparently no one was at it, and she could tell it had been inactive, running only it's security server protocols in the background. There was no need to hack the computer, it was already online with the network, so she simply began changing it's protocols, redirecting where the signals were supposed to go, essentially rewriting the security program with her mind. She didn't know if there was any detection hardware setup upstairs or if there was if Kiku was monitoring any of it, but she changed the signals so they would only go to the main network console in the main lab now and nowhere else. With that done she began to feed false signals out to the rest of the system to confuse anyone who might be watching. This entire lab and the building above were all hardwired together on an extensive network, and though she didn't know physically where everything was she could still guess at how things might be confused based on the states of active and not active and where signals were supposed to be fed. It didn't take her long to turn the entire system on it's head. She would give Luka and Miku their chance, she would do everything she could from in here. She only wished she could go outside to help…

… … … … …

A burst of blue tinted sonic light was all it took to send the souldrinker flying back from her and Miku watched it for a moment to make sure it didn't get back up. She didn't think it would but it was hard to see how it had landed in the tall overgrown brush of the abandoned lot and she didn't have time to stare at it for long, returning her gaze to the 'd all circled the entire thing and for awhile she had occasionally caught glimpses of the others, a flash of pink hair here or dark clothing there, and she could of course see every time a sonic burst tore the air to remove a souldrinker, but that had been the slow period for just a little while after their attack began, a straggler or two coming out here and there and being blasted by whoever it wandered closest to. That hadn't lasted though, since anyone watching from the building would doubtlessly be able to see the flashes of light as well as she could she was sure. Now they'd begun gathering and their numbers were staggering, far more than she would have guessed just from up the road. For a moment a niggling worm of doubt wiggled it's way into her, but she clenched her jaw and shook her head, forcing the moment of worry down. They just had to get through this, that was all. Just a horde of monsters between her and the women she loved, no big deal. Just something that she had to do, nothing more than that.

The light of the day was beginning to fade and Miku turned her face up to the light breeze rustling through without taking her eyes from the massing force before her, letting the wind caress her face. The wind always made her think of Haku. The white haired exotic beauty always liked the wind, and would turn her face into it like this… "Just wait, Haku-chin…" she whispered aloud, watching as the mass of bodies around the warehouse began to spread out in all directions at once. "Just wait a little longer. We're coming…" She snugged the fingerless gloves on her hands a little tighter and shifted in her clinging tight black leather pants and boots as the wave of souldrinkers came at her. Her dark blue sleeveless shirt was already ripped in a place or two from close calls, but nothing had touched her directly yet, and she didn't care about that right then anyway. All that mattered was getting Haku back.

As they came in range she began to dance, a fast paced tempo coming from her as she hummed a wordless tune. She let her feelings surge within her, let her instincts take over. Vocaloids were creatures of instinct and emotion, and she didn't know how that worked with the technology but it was how she'd been taught to think about it and it worked, so that's what she did. As the heat of battle picked up everything else fell away, there was only her love for her girlfriends, her need to get to them, and the enemy between them. Her light blue twintails swirled around her as she ducked and spun, pivoted and whirled. She wasted no motion, expended no effort that was not necessary, conserving as much of her energy as she possibly could for the protracted battle. Every wrist flick or elbow pop, every kick out or knee up was aimed precisely so, and every one was deadly. One souldrinker's head snapped around from a blue tinted light burst from an arm twist, another's chest caved in from a shoulder roll, a third went down with ruined legs as she swept her leg out. She touched none of them, the sonic energy waves doing all the work, but that didn't stop blood from spraying in the air occasionally, didn't stop the monster's snarls of anger from turning to pain as they went down. It was grisly business, but she was Hatsune Miku, and now was the time for that iron will all Hatsunes had within themselves at their core. She danced, and she moved, and she slowly circled the mass of monsters. All that mattered were her lovers. All that mattered was Luka and Haku. She could do this, and they could all go home.

Miku felt like she were in a fever pitch lost in the fight as she was. The souldrinkers seemed endless in number and she hoped fervently the others were okay, but she didn't have time to worry about them. Her hair continued to whip about her as she weaved her way through the onslaught just keeping alive for one more moment after another. Luka's plan had seemed to be working at first, picking off the souldrinker's numbers a few at a time, but some additional mass of them had surged out from within the warehouse when they'd realized they were under attack, and now the only thing that kept her from being overwhelmed was that they were fighting on multiple fronts. While that was a good thing for her, the drawback was that meant she had no backup, and it also meant that if any one of them fell the host of creatures would surge back toward the others and they would slowly overpower them one by one. So she danced on, twisted and whirled about the fringes of the crowd trying to get at her. They were mindless in single purpose and that was to her advantage as well, but there were just so many, dozens of them just in front of her. But she was a Vocaloid, and she filled her mind with her girlfriends and fought on.

Out of the corners of her eyes in her peripheral vision Miku sometimes caught flashes of pale pink light to one side or faint green to the other. She never saw other colors so she supposed Gackpo and Teto were on opposite sides of the building from her, but at least she knew Luka and Gumi fought on. The fight went on for minutes, or years, she wasn't sure, it felt like an eternity crammed into a few seconds, and she began to realize that the ebb and flow of the battle had begun to shift a bit. Looking up she realized she could see the back ranks of the souldrinkers now, spaced a little away from the building. Hope surged anew within her and she redoubled her efforts. It was almost over. They were almost done with this gruesome task. It seemed cowardly somehow to think only of not having to do this anymore, of getting her girlfriends and getting away, but she held on to that spark of hope, used it to keep herself moving, to keep going, to keep pushing onward. She could do this. She could do this…

… … … … …

"Are you going to go do something about this?" The man's voice seemed to echo from the shadows of the warehouse around Kiku and she shook her head.

"Not yet, the time is not right." She said distractedly, not really caring what he was doing or what he had to say. Her thoughts were filled with Haku and the battle outside. She was still not entirely sure what had come over her, why she had tried to force herself on Haku before. She wasn't sorry she'd tried it, she was only sorry it had gone so poorly, and she hadn't figured out what she wanted to do about it yet. Now this attack… at the most inopportune time… mother and father would be here soon and she hadn't even figured out what she would do...

"Your little pets are being mowed down by the dozen." He growled.

"I know, but they're expendable, and they're serving their purpose." She watched out the window at the pink and blue flashes of light she could see from her angle. Megurine Luka, Hatsune Miku… their time had come. She'd warned them not to try this, but they were, and now…

"What purpose? Meat wall between us and them?"

Kiku opened her mouth to respond but a lancing pain shot through her head and she clutched at the windowsill to avoid falling over, clenching her jaw hard to keep from moaning in pain. To her vision flashing red letters appeared that read ' _Warning: Programming conflict, driver error, critical system incompatibility_ '. Not now, not when she had to deal with this attack! She clutched at the sill until the pain subsided and the warning letters faded away before her eyes then she shook her head, her red hair swaying. "Yes, meat wall." She said noncommittally. In truth she worried about the two Vocaloid's strengths if they did their power combining trick. She could drain them herself if she could get ahold of them individually, but in their history of fights against each other they were stronger than she when together and so she had to wear them down first, which is why she had created this army in the first place.

"So you will stand here until they wipe out your force and then come for us?" His voice took on that low dangerous note.

"Will you?" She asked quietly still watching out the window. He didn't respond to that, so she just continued keeping an eye on the battle before her. It was not going well for her children at all, but that was to be expected. She hadn't thought anything less than a full on army of souldrinkers would have stopped Hatsune Miku and Megurine Luka, but that wasn't the point. Once they had expended their strength on the fight outside, she would face them then, and she would defeat them. She had done it this way before, it would work again, only this time… this time… there would be no walking away from it for them this time. She would make sure of that.

… … … … …

Her back bumped up against something soft like skin and Luka spun around with a terrible low note on the tip of her tongue ready to lash out at the souldrinker that had gotten behind her, then stopped just barely in time before letting it loose at Miku, and from the look on the pretty light blue haired girl's face she was holding one back of her own as well. She opened her mouth to say something but saw the souldrinker coming up behind Miku and changed it to "Duck!" Her girlfriend dropped to one knee without hesitation and Luka flicked a wrist out over top of her head and let the note go. The creature burst in a bloom of pink light and Miku stood to glance around. They were nowhere near either of their starting positions, the ebb and flow of battle having taken them around the warehouse and pushed them together, and now that she took a moment to glance around she realized she couldn't see the sonic flashes of the others and that the swarm of the monsters before them was coming on from all sides. "What happened to the others?!"

Miku let out a sonic wave to take down a creature coming at them before glancing over her shoulder. "I saw Teto and Gumi running for the car awhile ago, I think they got too tired to fight anymore. I haven't seen Gackpo." She had a worried look on her face and Luka tried to offer a smile.

"I'm sure he made it out too."

"That means… that means Teto and Gumi took one car, and Gackpo the other." Her green eyes blazed, not with anger for their friends but with purpose for their foes.

Luka nodded, "It's better this way. We've trained for this, we came for this. I'm not leaving until we get Haku-chin back."

"And if we can't get her back then we aren't leaving!." Miku finished decisively, then moved to stand shoulder to shoulder with Luka to face the onrushing horde together. "This could be it. The final moment."

"Miku-chin." Luka looked at the adorable girl beside her, and Miku looked back up. Her throat tried to close with emotion but she swallowed and her voice came out steady. "I love you."

"I love you, Luka-chin." They smiled at each other. There was so much they both wanted to say, but there was no time to say it. "This is it. The end of the world."

"Or the end of our world." She replied. "Or the end of theirs.'

"Need a song…" Miku murmured as the first few souldrinkers from the final wave came within range, then they both felt it, they both knew. "This is our dance hall at the end of our world."

The first note exploded out of them as one, and their power reached out instinctively. Luka felt the familiar feel of Miku's sonic energies pouring into her even as her own did to the twintailed girl. The vibrations picked up, harmonized, and were one, and even as the first of the souldrinkers were still toppling over from that first note of " _World's End Dance Hall"_ they were already Resonating, already stepping forward to meet their enemies. Their sonic energies amplified together, rebounded, increased exponentially, and they moved together as one, stepped together as one, breathed together as one. They were one.

 _Joudan majiri no kyoukaisenjou, kaidan no sono mata mukou_

 _(Cross the borderline of black and white and climb the stairway up and up we go)_

 _Zenzen ii koto mo nai shi, nee sono te o hiite miyou ka?_

 _(Nothing good to do just bored to death, hey can I take your hand and steal you away?)_

 _Sanzan tsumazuita DANCE o, sou, saidan no ue de odoru no?_

 _(Step and stumble, do you want to go on? Don't you worry, the altar is our floor)_

 _Bouzen ni me ga kuranjau kara doudeshou, issho ni koko de!_

 _(Toss and turn, and dizzy up ourselves, and keep on dancing, you and me right here now)_

The enemy's numbers were so overwhelming that they didn't know if they would make it through this, both knew they might die, that they were going to their deaths facing such overwhelming odds, but it was better than leaving Haku here. Were the snowy haired exotic beauty there she would doubtless have told them not to risk their lives for her, Luka had no doubt of that, but she also knew with certainty that if the situation were reversed, if it were Haku out here with Miku and Luka herself were in danger, or if Miku were in danger and Haku were out here with her, they would be doing the same thing they were doing right now. She would willingly risk her life for them, and they would for her, as they would for eachother. Everything had to be equal in a three person relationship, and so they fought for their captured love. The music ripped from them as forcefully as their sonic waves, pink and blue sound waves merging and combining and amplifying to slam into their enemies before them.

 _Kandakai koe ga heya o umeru yo saitei na imi o uzumaite_

 _(Bury the room with all the shrill calls, voice swirl the senses, down and down we go)_

 _Touzen, ii koto mo naishi saa, omoikiri hakidasou ka?_

 _(Nothing good to do, just bored to tears, hey why don't we make a clean breast of it now?)_

 _Mijikai kotoba de tsunagaru imi o kao mo awasezu ni kegirau wake o_

 _("Find the meaning of connecting with these simple words, reason of disliking without seeing hers)_

 _Sagashitemo sagashitemo mitsukaranai kedo_

 _(Finding it… finding it… no meaning, no reason)_

 _Hanikaminagara okottatte, me o fusenagara warattatte, sonnano, douse, tsumaranai wa!_

 _(I gnash my teeth with my face smiling shyly, I smile with my eyes shut everything black, I don't want to bore myself with all of that nonsesne!)_

Wave upon wave upon wave tore from the two dancing girls, every step, every sway, every twirl, every twist, every bend exactly mirrored by the the other as they moved together in completely and perfectly synchronized movements. They could almost feel the wind on the other's faces, could almost see through the other's eyes, could almost hear through the other's ears, could almost feel the beat of the other's heart. Luka was in a battle furor and could feel it from her girlfriend beside her too. She let her voice raise in song even as she produced sound wave after sound wave in tandem with Miku. Wherever they pointed or gestured or lashed out souldrinkers went down. None got close to them, none touched them, none even had a chance as they made their way through the mass of bodies before them, which is exactly how she wanted it, exactly how she needed this to be.

 _HOP, STEP, de odorou ka, sekai no sumikko de ONE, TWO_

 _(Hop'n, step'n, may I have this dance? This is the world's end. Shall we do the "one, two?")_

 _Chotto kuratto shisou ni naru shuumatsukan o tanoshinde_

 _(Drink in all of this apocalypticism, how about a little taste of daze)_

 _Patto furatto kiechaiso na tsugi no shunkan o nokosou ka_

 _(Tick and tack, the moment's moving on, shoot now, 'say cheese!' our time is running out)_

 _Kuru kuru kuru kururi mawaru sekai ni you_

 _(Round and round and going round and round, intoxicate the world)_

It was changing from a battle to a slaughter. Every sonic wave from either girl took down three or four souldrinkers at once, and even with dozens of the creatures swarming all around they wouldn't last long especially with them mindlessly rushing in as they were. Luka knew they were both expending massive amounts of energy to do this, but where the threw sonic waves enemies fell, and on some level she exalted in the feeling of laying waste to those who would harm the women she loved. She was removing monsters from the world and she was saving Haku at the same time, nothing could be more noble than that. Nothing could be more important than Haku and Miku. It was gruesome grisly work but she shut her mind to do that part and focused on accomplishing her goal. She was a Vocaloid in a fury and that wrath was a terrible one, mirrored by her love beside her. Nothing could touch them, nothing could reach them as they whirled, spun, twisted and danced their way through the end of the world.

 _Boukansha dake no kuukan RACE o saishuudensha ni norikonde,_

 _(A spatial just for you, bystanders jump in the terminal, let's start the race)_

 _Zenzen ii koto mo nai shi, nee sono te o hiite miyou ka?_

 _(Nothing good to do just bored to death, hey can I take your hand and steal you away?)_

 _Nandaka itsumo to chigaou unmei no itazura o shinjite miru._

 _(Something seems to be unusual, wrong, shall we believe in what's called "our fate"?)_

 _Sanzan tsumazuita DANCE o, sou, omoikiri baka ni shiyou ka_

 _(Step and stumble, do you want to go on? No no, how about making a fool of ourselves)_

All at once they came around in a tight circle and found nothing else standing around them. It was a butcher's yard and the sight wound have been enough to make anyone sick but both girls turned their attention to the building, to the purpose they had come for, the tempo and the music slowing for a moment as they paused to look for an entrance, yet even as they did the darkly beautiful woman herself stepped out of a doorway, stepping toward them in an all too confident manner. She stopped a few meters away to regard them, putting a hand on her hip and tilting her head.

"I warned you not to come. I warned you what would happen if you tried this." Kiku said in her neutral deadpan. "Now I'm going to kill you, and afterward, I'm going to have to kill Yowane-san."

Then Haku was alive! Alive and here somewhere! Luka felt hope surge anew within her and suddenly she didn't feel the need for words. Neither did Miku apparently, her green eyes positively blazing with the same fury Luka knew was in her own eyes. They stepped forward as one, and the music kicked back up as they resumed their song, altering the flow of their battle dance to be targeted not against a mass of enemies but aimed at this one woman in instead. They began to aim their Resonated amplified sonic energy blasts at her, ducking and weaving around her in the Odoru no Budo, and Kiku responded in kind, twisting and whirling and cutting their energy waves with black sound waves of her own. Only they didn't attack her at the same time, but rather used the trick they had seen Gumi and Teto using against Gackpo in their training the other day, a method for two weaker fighters to counter a more powerful foe together. Luka would move forward in attack and while Kiku would face her Miku would circle for advantage, then when the redhead was about to land an energy wave she would dart in and counter it and move to the attack as Luka stepped back and began to circle. They supported each other and divided Kiku's attention, and so they danced. It was beautiful, it was fluid, it was lethal beyond all belief. Three beautiful women locked in a gorgeous yet deadly dance that each was intent on not letting all of them walk away from. It would have looked to any bystander like three girls in an intense dance routine to a fast paced song, but the reality was that the first slip, the first misstep, the first opening left, would likely be fatal for the first one to falter.

 _Tsumaran ugoki kurikaesu imi o oto ni awasete ashi o fumu wake o_

 _(Find the meaning of repeating all these foolish moves reason to make steps as the music grooves)_

 _Sagashitemo sagashitemo mitsukaranai kedo_

 _(Finding it… finding it… no meaning, no reason)_

 _Kanashii toki ni odoritai no nakitai toki ni waraitai no_

 _(I just want to dance when I need a little blue I just want to laugh when I need a little tear)_

 _Sonna wagamama tsukarechau wa!_

 _(I don't want to hear anymore of that ego!)_

They danced for seconds, or they danced for a decades. Time lost all meaning as wrists flicked and elbows popped and feet lashed out. As sometimes happens in intense moments such as life and death situations Luka found herself noticing odd things as she focused on countering Kiku's sonic energies while supporting Miku, trading off with the other Vocaloid as they worked at dividing her attention. Their hair was absolutely everywhere! Kiku's long red locks were easily as long as Miku's or her own and as the three of them twisted and spun in their deadly dance they lashed each other with it in a swirling flurry of red and pink and light blue. It was almost comical, she nearly laughed, but a laugh right then would have been a fatal slip. She had no time to focus on that, but abruptly she was given a surprise as the darkly beautiful woman growled at them suddenly.

"You have had a protracted battle against a host of my creations and you're still this strong?! How?! Last time I threw less at you and defeated you easily after!" Kiku's brow was furrowed in frustration, but rather than answer Miku just glared.

"You should never have taken Haku-chin from us!"

"Yowane-san is mine! MINE!"

"She was never yours." Luka whispered between verses of their song. So intent were they on their fight that none of them noticed the black van approaching from up the road.

 _POP ni SENSE o utau ka sekai, utsumuichau mae ni_

 _(Pop'n sense'n may I have this song? Before the world's end, shall we sing the "one, two"?_

 _Kyutto shichatta kokoro no ne o douzo, mada mada wasurenai wa._

 _(My heart, it's yours, can you hear the beat? No no, not yet, I won't forget how.)_

 _Nante kirei na nagame nan deshou ka! Koko kara mieru fuukei_

 _(Oh my, look and see, what a lovely view! There there, the world's a monochrome highway)_

 _Kitto nanihitotsu kawaranai kara, kareta himen o haou no_

 _(Crawl and creep, not a single piece will move, Anyhow, it's dead, nothing's gonna change)_

The balance of the fight shifted suddenly and without warning as Kiku suddenly growled again and spun away, getting a little distance. That simple disengage when she was obviously so intent on killing them told Luka everything she needed to know: Kiku was at the end of her rope. Luka was close to her limit too, breathing hard, chest heaving, power flickering in their Resonance, and she could tell without looking that Miku was close to failing too. They'd fought almost to a standstill as in the studio during practice, but they had a little left yet and Kiku seemed to have reached her wits end first.

"Enough of this! I will kill you! I WILL KILL YOU!" She raised a hand and that familiar black anti light zapped out toward them like lightning, one tendril that seemed to split at the ends as it went for them, but Luka was ready. She'd thought long and hard about this, had gone over their previous fights in her mind several times and had learned from it. If they really were cyborgs, then whatever this energy drain Kiku could do was only effective so long as it hit them, so long as it made contact and could sap their power. She flung an arm up and spun to the side, felt Miku spin the opposite direction, and the forking tendril lanced between them hitting only air. Kiku snarled and sent another at them, and they ducked it too, weaving around the dangerous black lightning as smoothly as any of their previous dance steps. Kiku tried again, and again, and again, firing them off almost haphazardly now, black lightning crackling through the air or hitting the ground erupting in sprays of dirt, but the two Vocaloids pivoted and pirouetted, and made their way steadily closer to the redhead, closing the gap even as she backed up slowly toward the building.

 _HOP, STEP, de odorou ka, sekai no sumikko de ONE, TWO_

 _(Hop'n, step'n, may I have this dance? This is the world's end. Shall we do the "one, two?")_

 _Chotto kuratto shisou ni naru shuumatsukan o tanoshinde_

 _(Drink in all of this apocalypticism, how about a little taste of daze)_

 _Patto furatto kiechaiso na tsugi no shunkan o nokosou ka_

 _(Tick and tack, the moment's moving on, shoot now, 'say cheese!' our time is running out)_

 _Sayonara, ogenki de, owaru sekai ni iu._

 _(Farewell, so long, have a nice day, goodbye, to this world's end dancehall)_

It ended all at once as Kiku's back bumped up against the wall she'd been backing up against. Finding herself suddenly with no room left to move she glanced back at the offending wall with a glare even as Luka and Miku spun up beside her around her outstretched hand. The edges of their palms came together facing toward Kiku and the last note on "Sayonara" produced a horrific point blank sonic boom half pink and half blue. Kiku let out a brief scream of rage and fear that was cut off abruptly as her body, with nowhere to go, was slammed into the wall with a hard blast, her head cracking the stonework and her torso compressed by the shockwaves. The wall spiderwebbed from the impact as her body pressed in so hard it stayed there after the sound dissipated, their song fading away finally with the last notes gone. The fight was over, and they slumped there beside their quarry, Miku putting her hands to her knees to keep herself up and panting heavily, Luka herself leaning against the wall and gulping air. They really had been at their limit but… but they'd done it! They'd won! Kiku at full power and they'd fought a horde of souldrinkers and then faced the witch and won! Despite her exhaustion it was a euphoric feeling, and she smiled down at Miku.

"We… we won…" She panted, and got a pretty if ragged smile in return.

"Let's… let's get… Haku-chin and… and get out of here…"

Luka looked down at Kiku and put a hand out to her neck, feeling for a pulse. "She's… she's alive…"

Miku frowned and they shared a suddenly tense moment. They each knew the other was thinking the same thing: did they finish her? Could they? "Do we…..?" She asked tentatively.

Luka stared hard at their unconscious enemy, considering for a long heavy moment. "I…" she swallowed hard and shook her head. "I don't… I don't think I can."

"She'll… she'll just recover… and come for us again…" Miku said, but she look nauseous at the thought.

"Then we'll just beat her again." Luka said. "And again after that. And again and again. But I won't kill her in cold blood, not like this. How would that make me any better than her?"

Miku screwed up her face in an odd expression but after a moment they nodded. With their breath caught mostly back they found the door Kiku had come out and went inside to look around. Haku was in here somewhere…

… … … … …

After having done everything she could with the security network for her girlfriends Haku had not failed to notice the approaching SUV via one of the building's cameras. It was her parents, she knew it was, she could all but sense it somehow as the big vehicle lumbered towards them. She rushed to the elevator and tried to make herself access it, but she still couldn't. Her directive must have been to stay until he was here, and he wasn't quite here. He would be in mere moments though she knew, and she wondered exactly where that line was, wondered exactly at what point the directive became fulfilled. Was it when he was here in the room with her? Or on the property? When the SUV pulled onto the lot? She wasn't sure, so she lifted her hand to the elevator call button, tried to will her finger to press it, and waited. Tried, and waited. Tried and waited. The SUV grew closer, ever closer. It crossed the property line, pulled down the road strewn with bodies of the souldrinkers she'd watched her girlfriends absolutely destroy on the camera, watched the huge tires roll over them as though they were nothing more than uneven ground. The van halted just outside of the entrance on the opposite end of the building than her lovers had gone in. She tried again, her hand didn't move. Her camera feed shifted from one camera to another with a zoomed in view. The doors of the SUV opened, she tried again, nothing. Her parents got out of the vehicle, she could clearly see them step onto the lot, and suddenly her finger hit the call button.

Elated Haku dashed into the elevator the second the doors slid open. She didn't even have to use the security card she'd hacked, it too was on the network. She simply provided it with clearance copied from the security terminal with a thought even as she pressed the ground floor button. The elevator dinged, the doors slid closed, and she began to ascend. She could still see her parents movements through the security camera feeds in her mind's eye, and she tapped her foot impatiently as the elevator seemed to take about nine thousand years to get to the surface, but then there was another ding, and the door slid aside… and there they were, right in front of her in the hallway, eyes wide in surprise as Miku straightened up from the call panel she'd been fiddling with. She'd been watching them in their attack on the warehouse the entire time but they were even more beautiful in person, both wearing skin tight black leather pants and boots, fingerless black gloves, and dark red and blue sleeveless shirts respectively. Combat outfits, what made Haku think of them as warrior Luka and Miku rather than idols. She felt like garbage in her plain black medical coverings she'd been forced to wear this whole time. She couldn't afford to go back down to get her things though.

"Haku-chin!" They both gasped at the same instant and began to rush forward, but Haku snatched their hands up and rushed out of the elevator trying to drag them down the hall, nearly knocking items they were holding out of their hands in the process. Miku had Haku's diaphanous plastic bow in one hand that looked like butterfly wings, and Luka had her phone. Where had they... ? No, no time.

"We have to get out of here!" She said frantically as they let her drag them down the hall. "They're coming! We have to go!"

"No it's okay Haku-chin, we beat Juon-san." Miku said reassuringly as they reached the intersection of the small back office.

"Whose coming?" Luka asked.

"My parents! They're here! They-!" Abruptly Haku cut off as a thought struck her and she paused at the door into the warehouse and looked back down the hall, back toward that first office she'd been kept in. She bit her lip for a brief moment, then she dashed back down the hallway. There was no time for this, no time!

"Haku-chin!"

"Where are you going?!"

She twisted the knob and flung the door open with a bang, and the little blond kids jumped in surprise, then stared up at her. The little girl and little boy who had been held up here with her were still there. They looked miserable, their clothes obviously old and dirty and their hair matted with sweat. Haku's heart was breaking for them and she knelt down there in the doorway to seem less imposing as Miku and Luka skidded to a halt behind her and gasped, but she spoke to the kids before they could say anything. "Look how Juon-san has treated you… oh I'm so sorry. We're getting out of here okay? Do you want to come with us?" She held out her hands toward them invitingly, but they didn't move, just stared at her with those same unblinking stares they'd given her all along when she'd tried to talk to them before. "Come on, it's okay, you can come with us. We've got clean clothes and a bath and we can get some yummy food. Are you hungry?" Finally after weeks their expressions cracked a bit, the girl biting her lip and the boy wincing. Desperately Haku tried one more thought that occurred to her. "Are you only supposed to obey Juon-san? She's defeated, my girlfriends here won. Can you come with me instead? My parents made her, and they made me, so in a way I'm like your… aunt? I guess? Or cousin? I don't know, but it's okay to come with me, I promise!" They regarded her with looks as full of desperation as Haku knew her own voice held, but abruptly whatever seemed to be holding them in place popped and they rushed to her, flinging their dirty bodies into her arms and they wailed in tears.

"Nee-chan! Nee-chan please take us with you!"

"Please help us! Please!"

Haku squeezed them to herself in a hug and murmured in their ears, "It's okay now, it's okay." There was no time for this, she reached down and took their hands. "Come on, let's get out of here!" She pulled them all along back down the hallway and burst into the warehouse, and there several meters away she could see them, her parents and some tall man with dark hair and a jacket hanging open with visible bandages wrapping up his arms. His purple eyes gave her chills but it was her parents that drove her to near panic. Her father was tall if not quite so tall as Miku's dad, but he was whip like in body movement and turned as they came out the door, as did her mother, beautiful despite her middle years but with a dark cast to her eyes that made them all pause with chills running up their spines.

Her father lifted a hand to point at her. "What are you doing?" He called across the warehouse, his rich baritone voice filled with obvious surprise. "You were ordered to stay here until we came for you!"

"And you've came, and now I'm leaving!" She called back and turned to the nearest oblong shape covered in a slick material covering she didn't know the name of. She grabbed hold of the vehicle's tarp and pulled, sliding it off with the sound of material sliding over fiberglass, tossing the cover aside to reveal a sleek yet angular looking expensive black sports car of foreign import she didn't know the make of.

"Stop!" Her father shouted. "I order it! Access keyword: Prism!"

Haku didn't even pause, flinging the front door open and leaning down to tilt the front seat forward. "Come on!" she gestured the kids and the blonds piled into the back seat, as did Miku while Luka ran around to the other side.

"How did you-?!" Her father growled in surprised anger right atop the "Stop them!" her mother shouted, and the tall lanky man came rushing forward, but it was too late as Haku and Luka pulled their doors closed with slams and Haku found the key and rammed it into the ignition and twisted. The engine roared alive and Luka slid her window open and leaned her head out, pointing it at the garage door nearest them and letting out a booming note and pointing her palm toward it. The door blew out with an explosive blast of pink sonic energy and Haku slammed the shifter into gear and worked the clutch. Tires screamed on the pavement and as they began to take off, and the last thing she heard was a shouted order from one of her parents, "After them!"

Miku and Luka craned their heads back to watch out the windows as they began to leave the warehouse behind and a moment or two later another sports car, a silver one, tore out of the warehouse, but Haku wasn't watching her mirrors as they pulled around the building. Setting the ebrake and cranking the wheel she began to drift around the building in a wide arch, tires peeling out as they twisted on the ground in a sloppy sort of slide, held on, and then let her eyes fall half lidded for a moment. "Haku-chin!" Luka cried as the car bounced and jostled. "What are you doing?!" Miku made a strangled noise but Haku was concentrating. She still had access to the network of the warehouse, and she felt an anger, no, a hatred at what had been done to her boiling to the surface. These past days she hadn't had the luxury of anger or fury, but now as her parents sat within the warehouse she felt the need to unleash it. Still connected as she was it was a simple matter to access the massive generator they had deep inside the lab and set it to feedback on itself. That was all it took, and she opened her eyes all the way. The building seemed to be spinning in place as she drifted around it and realized they were bouncing about because the tires were running over limbs of the souldrinkers bodies everywhere. She'd ended up not so much drifting as spinning in a circle, but it had been enough to buy her the brief moment she needed. It didn't have quite the effect she'd desired however, as the last thing she saw before the building began to go up in explosions was her parents dragging the unconscious form of Kiku to their big black SUV. No more time, Haku thought. She dropped the ebrake and shifted, and they sped off toward the road out. Once they hit pavement and the tires found purchase on the concrete they took off like a rocket. The other sports car hit the road a moment or two behind them, and Haku could see the SUV lumbering away as the entire building went up in a blazing fireball and she felt her connection to the lab break.

"I don't see the Ferrari or our other car." Miku said sounding relieved. "I guess the others did get away."

"Others?" Haku asked as their car positively ate the road up, passing the 300km/h line in surprising time.

"Gumi and Teto and Gackpo came to help." The twintailed girl replied. "They were overwhelmed and had to run though.

"Who is coming after us?" Luka asked peering into the mirrors.

"I don't know, I've never seen him before." Haku replied urging as much speed as she could from the car as they tore down the road. She'd been right, they were on the edge of the city, and for the moment the road went straight but they would be turning any time she thought. "We can't lose him out here though, we have to get into the city. Everyone hold on, make sure you're belted in." As everyone braced themselves she tried looking out the window for a data stream to connect to, thinking perhaps if she could get a cell phone signal she could tap that, but for the moment it was eluding her. Either she wasn't used to seeing what she was looking for or there was no reception out here, but either way she'd just have to follow the road. It led in a huge curve along the outskirts of the city, and though they were gaining some ground slowly on their pursuer he was sticking hot to their trail, though they'd outpaced her parent's SUV long since. When they finally came to a fork in the road Haku turned in the direction toward the buildings not far off, trying to head deeper into city limits. Traffic picked up soon enough and it wasn't long before she was dodging cars, weaving through traffic and cutting people off. She got honked at and had rude gestures thrown her way a number of times, but she didn't have time to think about that a she concentrated on avoiding a wreck. She came within centimeters a couple of times, and a few people had to wrench their wheels hard so sure were they that Haku was going to hit them, but she knew where the edges of the car were, she could all but see the dimensions in her mind. All four of her passengers were gripping arm rests or door handles or seat edges intently but she just urged the car for more speed.

"Haku-chin!" Luka cried pointing at the the hard tee intersection they were coming up on as they pulled through the first of the busier intersections within the city, and she pulled the ebrake again and threw the wheel over. Everyone slipped sideways in their seats a bit as the car went into another drift and she slid them smoothly through the turn before releasing the ebrake, passing oncoming traffic as well as pedestrians and avoiding them all, then stepped on the gas once more, working the pedals beneath her. She glanced in her mirror and saw the man behind them come out of a drift too, but his maneuver was sloppy and his car wobbled a bit on the back end. So, she thought, that was the way of it. In that case…

"Everyone hang on… you aren't going to like this…" Haku told them.

"Haku-chin what-?!" Luka started then they all screamed as she flipped a u-turn in the middle of traffic. Calculations were going through her head as fast as she could run the numbers and she could almost see the physics equations just like when she'd jumped off that balcony, but they couldn't see what was in her head, couldn't know she'd already seen how fast the other cars around her were moving and timed exactly when she could spin around. Horns blared and people veered out of the way but she was now aimed right back at their pursuer, who was close enough behind that he had to veer aside as well. She'd been hoping he'd bump into something and give her a chance to lose him down a side street but he managed a u-turn as well, if more clumsily than she, and kept coming. She hit the ebrake again and drifted around a corner into a side street anyway and then gunned it passed several shops but he stayed right on her heels. "Haku-chin!" Luka shouted, "This is a Maserati Granturismo! It's stock tires won't hold up to this kind of drifting!" Haku glanced at the pink haired beauty beside her; if anyone one would know it would be Luka with her mechanic's background. Granturismo… so that's what she was driving. She eased up on the drifts, taking the turns easier at a time, and suddenly an idea popped into her head as she took notice of the data streams in the air now. They looked a little different from the wifi signal in the lab, but it was definitely a data stream, probably a 4G cell phone signal.

"What's he driving back there behind us?" She asked, and her girlfriend's craned to look.

"A BMW of some kind." Miku said. "I'm not sure which."

"It looks like an i8." Luka replied.

"Are you sure?" Miku asked.

"I think so." Came Luka's reply.

"An i8…" Haku said as she eased up even more on her turns, trying to make it look as though she were having problems with her steering or at least possibly getting more cautious as she led them deeper into the city, taking turns wider and avoiding more obvious obstructions. She was trying to lure her pursuer in closer, and it seemed like it was working, the silver sports car in her mirror growing bigger. She was glancing ahead taking side streets and circling blocks and searching for the right spot even as she brought up websites in her 3D projected mind's eye, looking up car specs, muttering them to herself as she looked. "Maserati Grantoursismo, 490cm long 190.5cm wide 134.6cm high, BMW i8 470cm long 195.5cm wide 104.1cm high, alley clearance, stopping force, another vehicle, building wall-"

"What's she muttering?" Miku asked from the back seat.

"I don't know, numbers and dimensions." Luka replied completely nonplussed.

"There!" Haku veered the car into a hard turn and tires screamed on the pavement again in protest but she shifted and floored it, barreling down the alley. The silver car appeared just behind her right on her tailpipe and she knew she had him.

"Haku-chin…" Luka's voice was full of concern. "This alley gets really narrow with that delivery truck parked in it. I don't know if we can…"

"That's… Haku-chin I don't think…!" Miku sounded paniced and the two blond kids in the backseat screamed but Haku had the angle lined up perfectly and as the Maserati flew through the alley they passed the truck on the right and the wall of the building on the left so close that not a fingerwidth of room would have fit between the edges of the mirrors and the obstructions to either side. The silver car right behind tried to fit, but the BMW was a little wider and the mirrors scraped hard and broke off, startling the driver or at least causing concern because the silver beemer swerved a tiny bit, a few centimeters only, but it was enough. The car chasing them bounced sideways a bit and he ran head first into the inside of the rear tires of the delivery truck. The low angled front end wedged under the tire and the rear end of the car bucked up before falling back down and the last thing Haku could see in her mirrors before swinging out of the other end of the alleyway was the white poof of the airbag deploying. She didn't slow down until she was a couple of streets over and for a wonder no sirens sounded, no lights flashed, there must not have been any police in the area. She turned the Maserati around and headed for home and they all began to breathe easier.

"Haku-chin…" Luka gasped, one hand to her chest. "That was… that was insane!"

"But you did great!" She felt Miku's hand pat her shoulder from the back seat. "And we got you back! I could just… oh my god I could just…" Miku put her hands together and hunched her shoulders as emotion overcame her and then let out an ear piercing shriek of joy making everyone wince in pain. "Ohmygod I'm so happy! I missed you so much!"

"As did I." Luka said, reaching a hand over to Haku's lap to rest on her knee as she drove, though she was still wincing a little from the shriek.

"Thank you for rescuing me." Haku said, emotion suddenly tightening her chest. "You shouldn't have risked your lives for me though. If anything had happened to you I-"

"Yes, we should have." Miku said sternly, her glee from a moment before subsiding.

"Haku-chin, we're in a three way relationship. We're all equal, right? If it had been one of us down there and you out here, you would have come for us."

"I… yes…" She mumbled, her cheeks heating at the tender words. "You're right." There was nothing else to say to that, and Miku began to bounce up and down in her seat energetically, unable to contain herself.

"Where are we going, nee-chan?" The little blond girl asked between Miku and the boy.

"We're going home." Haku told her softly. "She wasn't sure she liked being addresses as elder sister but after everything they'd been through she didn't want to dissuade them.

The girl looked from one to the other of them and Miku gasped. "You're the little girl from the alley that night! … Rin! Right?!"

"Kagamine Rin, and this is Kagamine Len." She said giving a little seated bow. "Please forgive my deception."

"What deception?" Miku asked curiously.

"She wasn't lost that night, she was spying on us for Juon-san." Haku said.

Miku gasped. "No!"

Rin wiped at her eyes. "Len and I are some kind of experiment to her. We can't disobey her, we've tried. She… does things to us… tests what we can handle… she said we're only ever to do what she says." She looked up, looked at Haku via the car's rear view mirror. "But the other day… we heard her talking to Shion-san in the warehouse."

"The tall man with bandaged arms that was chasing us?" Luka asked, and both kids nodded.

"He's vicious mean." Len piped up for the first time. "He's cuts his own arms and says he does it for the master and that he'd cut anyone else too."

"Juon-san told Shion-san that he should consider nee-chan in the same regardses he did her."

"The same regard." Haku corrected gently, and Rin nodded undeterred.

"She said she would do whatever it took keep you and she wanted him to treat you like he treated her." Rin paused a moment then tilted her head. "Len and I have wanted to escape for so long. When you said you were made by the same people, and with what she said to him… if he was to treat you the same, Juon-san must want everyone to, right? And if we're to obey her, then we must be allowed to obey you too. So…" she wiped at her eyes again and the poor girl sobbed in relief. "So… you're our nee-chan now. We'll do whatever you say."

"And if the three of you are… what did you say? A three person couple?" Len asked and the three older girls blushed

"That... might take some explaining…" Luka said gently, but Len shook his head.

"It doesn't matter. If you're all important to each other, and you rescued nee-chan who rescued us, then you're all nee-chan from now on." Rin nodded with Len in determined agreement. Haku wasn't sure what to say, wasn't sure there was anything to say. They seemed to be working their way out of a logic loop in their programming and it was just as well. She didn't want them being beholden to Kiku anymore.

Once they got back to the Compound they found a reception waiting for them. It seemed that Teto, Gumi, and Gackpo had made it back safely in the other cars after all, and once they had told the directors what happened Miku's parents had chosen to wait for their daughters to return, chosen to assume they would be returning. Haku was surprised to find open arms and apologies from the Hatsunes, especially after what she'd discovered in the files below, but Miku reassured her that they'd had some small measure of resolution to that and that she'd explain later. She added that she'd talked to her parents about accepting her two girlfriends as part of the family, and Haku felt a warmth spreading inside her at that. Gackpo smiled and patted her on the head and Gumi and Teto both gave her hugs, even the stoic redhead, and after everyone had calmed down Haku introduced the blondes. "I think Juon-san made them or at least altered them, but they're one of us now." She looked up to Director and Doctor Hatsune. "I'd like it if they could join us. Please? I'll help you work on their programming."

"Haku dear, after everything you've all been through, I'd say the next things we need to worry about is a bath and a feast." Mira said, and smiles broke out all around. "But yes, we will do everything we can. We'll go order some catering and take a quick look over these two and get them cleaned up while you girls go wash."

"And we'll see to setting a table and decorating!" Gumi said enthusiastically.

And with that everyone was heading for doors. Rin and Len were a little nervous about being separated from Haku but she assured them they would be taken care of. And so it was she found herself in the big bathroom with her girlfriends, blessedly alone, for a few minutes anyway. Being covered in combat grime wasn't exactly a turn on but Haku still couldn't stop casting glances at the two beautiful girls as they all disrobed to go wash off, blinking oddly as Miku unwrapped a bandage from her hand that had been under her fingerless gloves, before they went in to the washing area. The entire time they were scrubbing themselves Miku bubbled about everything that had happened while Haku had been gone in a non stop flood of words, glossing over a few of the more embarrassing bits. Luka just smiled at them, content to let Miku do the talking, one of her small private smiles on her lips as they sat together and soaped themselves.

"- and we were absolutely devastated when we'd thought you'd left us like picked THAT WITCH over us like we didn't realize at first that you'd been turned all zombie status but we figured it out later and we found your card and that was sooooooooooo sweet of you by the way I could have just died and with how horrible it's been discovering what we actually are it just made everything like way more complicated than it really needed to be I think but it was so hard dealing with it all that if we hadn't realized you hadn't left on your own I don't think either of us could have handled it much longer I know I'm still struggling with it but you're back and I'm so happy about that as long as you're both with me I think I can handle absolutely anything because Luka-chin is like my guiding star and Haku-chin is like my anchor in a storm and I need you both and OW!" The only reason her tirade came to an end was because she bumped her hand against the faucet reaching for the hose to rinse her suds off and she clutched it to her chest wincing. Haku blinked and reached out for her girlfriends hand. Miku flinched away like she didn't want Haku to see but she didn't object when she leaned forward and took the hand gently anyway, turning Miku's wrist delicately to get a look at the half healed cut on the outside edge of her palm.

"I saw you unwinding a bandage… this didn't happen in the battle did it?"

Miku blushed in embarrassment and shook her head, but she didn't lie about it. "No I… I had a… a fit…"

"Miku-chin has been having a hard time accepting what we are." Luka said gently from the pretty light blue haired girl's other side. "I don't blame her… I mean it's horrific isn't it? How does a person even deal with something like that?"

Haku thought about it a moment staring at Miku's hand. She didn't blame them either, it really was insane to think about. She'd adapted easily enough because she was so tech savvy anyway, but it even still gave her chills at times. Slowly she bent her head down to place a little kiss on Miku's hand and the other girl giggled nervously. "What's different about what we have inside us than anyone else might have who lost a limb or organ?' She asked.

They both blinked at her a moment then Miku ventured hesitantly, "We're literally dead without them?"

With a shake of her head Haku touched her own chest through the suds all over her. "People who have certain kinds of heart problems get pacemakers that are electronic devices inside them that they can't live without." Both girls made funny faces at her and she gestured with a hand. "Miku-chin, with your background you should know, right? There are any number of medical devices that help with regular life right? To correct an injury or replace a limb, like a prosthetic?"

"These aren't prosthetics though." Luka objected fidgeting on her wash stool. She covered her unease by sliding her loofah slowly over her skin, but they could both see it. "These are cybernetic implants."

Haku tilted her head slightly and looked off at nothing for a moment, a webpage floating before her vision to her own eyes. "The official dictionary definition of an 'implant' is 'any device or material, especially of an inert substance, used for repairing or replacing part of the body.' That's all we have, right?"

They stared at her a moment gazing caught her momentary attention shift. "How do you know that off the top of your head?" Miku asked right atop Luka's question of "What did you just do?"

With a shake of her head she made a sort of neutral gesture with one hand. "I accessed the WiFi, that's not important right now." Their eyes widened at that and they made sounds of exclamation.

"With your head?!" Miku asked incredulously.

"I think that IS important!" Luka added.

"I'll teach you how later, it took me a lot of experimenting to figure it out." Haku promised them. "The point is, that by the official definition of 'implant' what we have is no different than anything someone else might have, right?"

"Except that ours give us superpowers." Miku muttered.

Haku stabbed a finger at the light blue haired girl and got a blink of surprise back. "That's the difference right there, isn't it? We were made for a purpose, but that doesn't change the fact that, at the bottom line, medically speaking, we're no different than someone with a pacemaker and extensive prosthetics. Right?" They both stared at her a moment, eyes going wide, then slowly they began to nod in agreement.

"I think I see what you're getting at…" Luka said.

"When you put it like that it doesn't sound so bad." Miku said as though a weight were coming off her shoulders. "I'm sooooooooo glad you didn't actually leave us, Haku-chin."

"I never left you…" Haku said flatly. "Did you really think I did?"

"No!" Miku practically shouted, but then she winced and Luka shrugged.

"We… we didn't know what to think, Haku-chin… Juon-san said… said some terrible things to us both… we didn't find out until later that she was manipulating us by our feelings, our insecurities, but…" The gorgeous idol let out a sigh and shook her head.

"You doubted me." Her silvery tone was still flat, but Haku couldn't seem to make it not be, and they both winced as if she'd shouted even though she hadn't.

"We… didn't mean to…" Miku muttered sullenly.

"It just… it looked so bad…" Luka put in sheepishly.

Haku stared at them for a long few moments, but even as she did her thoughts turned to her own talk with Kiku in her parent's lab. She gave a slight nod after a moment and they perked up a bit. "She said… things to me too… about you guys as well…"

"Haku-chin, it's all lies, it-" Miku started to say but Haku cut her off gently but firmly.

"If you weren't afraid of the lie you wouldn't have believed it true." Haku said and they both looked like they might tear up any moment, but she wasn't having any of that. Leaning forward gently she said insistently, "We can talk about fears later. For right now…" She leaned in to Miku, their soap bubbles pressing together, merging, their bare soapy skin sliding together in seductive ways, and the other girl only had time to gasp before Haku captured Miku's mouth with her own, wrapping one arm around her shoulders and pulling her in close. The moment of surprise aside Miku responded eagerly, sliding her arms up around Haku's back and tilting her face to the side so their lips could lock, and Haku pressed her tongue into the other girl's mouth needfuly. It wasn't a delicate kiss but rather a passionate embrace full of emotion and promises for the future, full of love and heat. She worked Miku's jaw for her, sliding their tongues together and occasionally letting her tongue slide back out so she could nip at Miku's lips before plunging it back in. She had her light blue haired girlfriend gasping and moaning and clutching at her body in desire, and when they finally couldn't breathe anymore she broke off and pulled back slightly leaving Miku with a half lidded dazed look, her mouth slightly agape as she panted with her tongue hanging out. Without hesitating longer than it took to get another breath Haku turned to Luka. The pink haired beauty was chewing at her lip as she'd watched the display and fidgeted on her stool but she lifted her arms invitingly to Haku, who obliged her using her other arm to draw Luka in close to capture her mouth. It was the same sort of insistent passionate embrace, tongues sliding together, lips wrestling and nipping, nothing but need and love and heat here either. It felt like fireworks were going off in all their heads and Haku pushed Luka back a bit with her body so she could be the dominant one in this moment. Not a comfortable position for her usually but she wanted them, needed them, to feel this from her. She couldn't stop a moan of her own either when she felt her nipples catch on the other girl's as their large breasts slid together as though they too were wrestling in the embrace, and Luka shuddered all over. When at last neither could breath she pulled back as before, a little saliva string stretching between their outstretched tongue to break like a bubble popping. Both panted hard, and Haku waited until Luka's blue eyes began to drift fully back open once more before she looked from one to the other. "If you ever doubt me again, ever, EVER." She said so fiercely their eyes widened, but it wasn't fury that drove the statement, it was passion and they could hear it. "Think back to that." They gulped and nodded and Haku reached up to tweak their noses, a flush on her cheeks beginning to bloom to match the heat in their own at her forwardness. "And if you need reminders, I'll happily refresh your memories any time. I love you both, more than anything, more than life itself. Don't ever forget that."

They leaned in to her and wrapped their arms around her from either side, all three hugging tightly as they both whispered in either of her ears at the same time, "I love you Haku-chin" They stayed that way for a long few moments just happy to be in each other's arms once more before Luka finally tilted her head back a bit. "If we didn't have obligations I'd suggested we go back to my room," she said hungrily and it was Haku's turn to swallow and blush even harder, but she was just as hungry for it as they were. "We're expected for dinner though. Come on, let's finish washing up before they wonder what we're doing in here."


	25. Vocaloid Academy Chapter 25

**AUTHOR NOTE:** Hey guys, **Yuri** warning for this chapter! Things get **NSFW** later in this chapter, and as before for anyone not reading for that and want to skip it, it starts about two thirds of the way in and is super obvious when it gets going, but there's no more plot to the chapter once it does. Anyone wanting to skip that part can safely stop reading once it begins and not miss anything else! Just wanted to give a heads up!

And as before, thanks for all the reviews and support, it really makes me happy to know my story is being enjoyed! I know this is a super long Fanfic already but I still have a ton planned, so stay tuned! Hehe! ^.^

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"So that's how the battle went." Director Hatsune mused as he peered at the three girls sitting across the table from him over top of his fists steepled together with interlaced fingers, his elbows propped on the desk. His deep bass voice almost rumbled off the desk he sat at and it seemed as though it should cause some sort of wind to blow away the papers and pencils and other things he kept on it. "It sounds as though you acquitted yourselves well." Luka and Miku had just finished explaining how everything had gone from their perspectives during their rescue of Haku the day before. It was supposed to be a simple debriefing and indeed everyone else seemed to be perfectly comfortable but Haku couldn't help the butterflies in her stomach.

"We're very proud of you girls." Doctor Hatsune put in from beside her husband before shifting her gaze to the snowy white haired girl. "Though if I may, I'd like to know a little more about your time time in the Yowane lab, Haku dear. How did you manage to hack the network? And how come your command keyphrase didn't stop you when you all escaped in the car?"

"I changed my keyword." Haku said and they all started at her incredulously.

"How could you possibly make changes to your own code?" The doctor asked. "You'd have to be in a diagnostic cycle to do it, and when in the cycle a Vocaloid has limited functionality and no sensory input. For all intents and purposes, to you, you're unconscious."

Haku sighed, she hadn't been looking forward to this moment. "I found it unconscionable that others could have such total control over me, or any Vocaloid really, so when I accidentally discovered what had happened to us I accessed and changed Miku-chin and Luka-chin's security access."

"Yes we know that." The director said sounding a touch irritated. "We have been unable to perform even basic maintenance on them since. We will need you to release them."

"But how did you change yourself?" Mira asked atop her husband.

"I'm sorry, but I have absolutely no intention of releasing our command functions. I changed my own with a script I wrote while confined in that lab. I was able to jack myself in to a diagnostic terminal to display my code, which I studied before finding my keyphrase. I was then able to get enough audio samples of my father's voice in his files to create a sound clip of him saying my access keyword, then I wrote a script that I could write changes to my code in so when I ran it it would play the access word, put me in a diagnostic cycle, apply the changes to my code I had prepared ahead of time, then attempt to compile it. If it compiled successfully it would then save the changes, if not it would undo them and revert me back, then once finished it would exit my diagnostic cycle and return me to normal function." She said this all in her silvery monotone as though she were completely calm, though she felt anxiety tumbling through her inside.

The looks of incredulity increased all around, and though Haku thought her girlfriends were impressed the doctors certainly were not. "That is… an inventive way of circumventing your failsafes, but do you realize how dangerous that was?" The doctor asked. "Without a proper backup and restore function or without someone else there to oversee the changes you could have seriously damaged your programming or altered it in unforeseen ways."

"I know that, but it was a desperate situation and I had few options. From now on I plan to take all the appropriate precautionary measures." She allowed in response. "Assuming you will allow me access to the facilities here?"

"We will allow access if you will release your command functions and that of Luka and Miku." The director tried to counter, but Haku just shook her head at that.

"I'm sorry if I am being too presumptuous, I don't mean to step above myself, but…" Haku glanced to either side of herself, at the loves of her life. They seemed concerned but both nodded to her. They trusted her to do what she thought best, and she took a deep breath. "This is not a negotiation. You've accepted me both as a Vocaloid and as a member of your family, as a fighter against the souldrinkers and as a girlfriend of your daughter. For these things you have my eternal gratitude, I can't tell you how happy it makes me to be here. However…" Their faces had darkened a bit, that notorious Hatsune core of steel showing forth from both of the doctors, but she pressed on. "On this issue I cannot bend, and to be honest there is not much you can do about it, is there? Without hooking us up to diagnostic terminals and trying to hack our code bases you can no longer access us. In the past you could always activate my diagnostic routines without having full access to my command interface, but I have altered all three of our security permissions. You've admitted the mistake in not telling us what we were before, so unless you intend to go back on that admission, or unless you plan to try to forcibly shut us down, I don't see what you could possibly do or say to make us comply. We're Vocaloids, we could simply walk out the door and there is nothing you could do about it."

"You wouldn't…" Motsu objected quietly but sternly. "Luka and Miku have agreed to work with us against the souldrinkers."

"Yes, they have, and I stand by their decisions." Haku said. "I'm not trying to overturn that, or saying I intend to cause any harm in our purpose. I agree with your aims, and I agree with their decision. What I do not agree with is giving unbridled access to myself away. No one should have an off switch that renders them completely helpless to someone else. This is not a matter of trust, it's a matter of personal power. Were the situations reversed, would you be comfortable with that?"

Motsu and Mira exchanged glances with each other, a meaningful look passing between them before they looked back to Haku. "I suppose I can see your point." The director said, though his tone made it clear it was a grudging concedence. "However, being what you are, you do need regular maintenance above and beyond normal medical examinations. The nanite technology which maintains your implants has to be checked regularly, and your systems updated as well."

"On that point I do not disagree." She replied. "My only objection is to giving up total control."

"Then what is it you suggest?"

"I don't claim to have all the answers upfront, this is still an evolving process isn't it?" They all nodded at her and Haku gave another small shake of her head, her white locks bouncing behind her. She was happy to have her hair back in one of her bows again, this one all grey which matched her grey shirt and black pants. She glanced at her girlfriends again, they were both wearing matching black pants to hers as well as shirts that clung in flattering ways, Luka's a light rose color somewhere between red and pink and Miku's a pale blue. And they were all wearing their lockets, the ones Haku had gotten. "I propose that for the time being any maintenance or program alteration should be done with us all present so that we can access each other and be there for it, to allow a degree of comfort and stability."

"So you can be sure we don't do anything to you we shouldn't?" The Director asked icily.

Haku shook her head once more. "As I said, it's not about trust. If we're going to be a family, as well as working together, then trust is it's own foundation. This is only about not wanting to feel like we have an off switch, so we don't feel so much like we're…" She swallowed hard, emotion overcoming her after all, but surprisingly Miku seemed ready to jump in here, siding with Haku against her parents.

"So feel less like we're robots…" The pretty twintailed girl said into the quiet, setting a hand supportively on Haku's knee.

"It's a small thing to ask, in exchange for our cooperation, isn't it Director?" Luka put in, reaching a hand over to Haku's other knee.

After a few more moments of consideration the tall man finally sighed and nodded his head, leaning back in his chair a little bit and letting his hands settle on the tabletop, folding them before himself. "Very well. As you say, as family, trust must be our foundation."

"So long as you promise not to so recklessly make changes to yourself like that again." Doctor Hatsune added fervently. "Your programming is extremely delicate and took years of effort and research before we got it right."

Miku and Luka nodded even though they hadn't been the ones altering themselves, but Haku tilted her head. "When you say 'we' you mean yourselves… and my parents, don't you?" They nodded hesitantly and she got the feeling they didn't really want to talk about it, but Haku felt the need to press them. "You knew them. You worked with them. What… can you tell me about them? About their involvement in the Vocaloids I mean?" She added that last hastily not wanting them to think she was asking for personal information.

Again with the concerned glances passing between husband and wife, but this time their expressions seemed more worried than stern. Finally Mira answered, "We worked with them, for a time. We met them in med school before you girls were born, and carried out several professional collaborations together."

"You weren't friends?" Haku asked in surprise, she'd been sure they had been.

"Perhaps at first, yes. In the early days when everything was still theory."

"Theory?" Luka asked. "You didn't develop the Vocaloids together?"

"Yes and no." The doctor responded, and when the three girls frowned in puzzlement it was Director Hatsune who elaborated.

"An undertaking as momentous and complex as creating a cyborg for the first time doesn't just get decided on and executed over a weekend." He sounded a tad gruff at having to explain that. "Our first attempt wasn't until years after the idea came to us, and that idea wasn't until years after our own individual talents and projects as fledgling doctors and researchers began to emerge out of medical school and we realized what it meant."

"What talents?" Haku asked curiously. "You mean your specializations?"

"That's right," Miku's mother confirmed. "My husband was becoming a talented surgeon at the time, and I was going into the field of medical research, specifically cellular mitosis and regeneration."

"And my parents?" Haku wondered aloud.

"Your father wasn't actually in medicine," Motsu replied carefully. "His area of interest was in mapping the brain and in computer programming. When I met him in a conference on neural patterns he told me he wanted to develop new ways to control computers via brainwaves, or with nothing but thought. He hoped some day to invent brain implants that would allow computer interface with the mind."

"I met your mother some time after med school," Doctor Hatsune added. "She was working on developing tiny robots that could enter living cells and knit tissues together. She came to me because a mutual colleague had told her of my work with cellular regeneration."

They all sat in silence for a time absorbing all of this before Miku tilted her head, "So when did you decide to make me?" Everyone looked at her and she shrugged. "What? I was first wasn't I?"

The director shook his head. "It wasn't as simple as that. Years of research into our own individual fields went by before we ever came together as a unit. Your mother and I got married, Haku's parents met and got married, and we eventually realized out own individual specializations could be used to create something wondrous, something that we hoped could help people live longer lives."

"The Vocaloid Chip." Haku said to nods of agreement.

"Yes, the chip." Mira said wistfully. "We shared our knowledge with each other and worked long days and tiring nights to develop it along with the V-Serum, which would be necessary to maintain both cybernetic and biological functions with the implant procedure."

"What is the V-Serum?" Miku asked. "You used it on my hand." She held it up, now bandage free with only a pink line where the gash had been, mostly healed after only a few days.

"Yes, though in reality it would have healed just fine even if I hadn't., because you already have it inside your bodies. It's not actually just a serum." Her mother explained. "It's a biomemetic solution with nanites suspended in it."

"Which is why Miku's head healed so fast when she got hit by that beam in the alleyway." Haku realized.

"Biomemetic?" Luka asked, not following quite so easily as Haku was.

"Liquid metal with biological properties." Haku replied to a surprised blink from the doctors, but she shrugged. "It's in my father's files. I downloaded all their data while in the lab."

"Ah. Yes well. Your mother and I developed the nanite technology, Haku dear, while your father and my husband worked on the chip." Mira replied.

"I'm sorry, but nanites?" Luka asked skeptically. "I thought that was just a myth."

"Tiny robotics have existed in some form or another for years." Motsu told her. "We simply altered the idea of microscopic worker drones for our own purposes. They maintain all of your cybernetic implants and facilitate cell regeneration to prevent necrosis as well as systemic implant rejection."

"But how do they maintain themselves?" Haku wanted to know, fascinated in spite of herself. "They must need a constant powers source or- ah, the V-Core."

The director bobbed his head pleased that she'd seen it. "Yes, my own personal pride and joy. The V-Core is a miniature arc reactor that is fully self contained, an indefinite source of power. It's original concept was nothing more than a self recharging battery, but in the process of researching how to accomplish such a feat I discovered that the physics weren't so simple. The only ways to do it with traditional means would have led into fusion reactions that would be so radioactive they would fry a person in seconds from the inside out when activated."

"So you needed a form of cold fusion, and reactionary elements which would produce a net energy gain so there would be no loss from the reaction half life." Haku was feeling almost giddy at this but they were all staring at her again, Luka and Miku with their mouths hanging open. "...what?"

"Haku-chin," Luka's crystalline voice was somewhere between awe and disbelief. "You're absolutely brilliant, but that's nuts even for you."

"What? I've read about it…" Haku blushed, embarrassment coursing through her. "There is a real fusion reactor kind of like what he's talking about called the ITER reactor. It's absolutely huge though and puts out way more power than this." She tapped at her chest.

"The V-Core was based on the ITER." He replied. "After I realized I couldn't design a simple battery for what I needed I hit upon the idea of a power source and modeled it's concept from the same theories. As you said it's far smaller in scale and output but it functions similarly, with one or two ideas of my own to tweak it so there's no issues with long term wear or usasge. It's completely self sustainable and, most importantly, it powers both your implants and nanites."

"Then they recharge via wireless magic field?" Haku asked.

"Yes, a very small low amplitude field similar to a cell phone charge pad. They move through it as they circulate through your body and charge as they go about their operations."

"And that led you to create me?' Miku asked.

"Indirectly…" Doctor Hatsune replied. "The problem was that we ran into a wall of biological factors. The theories and the technology were all sound, but there was a high risk of death or permanent brain alteration with such invasive implants. There came a point in which we realized to test these things on real people would present great risk to the subjects, and we couldn't in good conscience risk it."

"Your parents were the first to suggest taking our work to the government." The director picked up the explanation. "They postulated that a cadaver, if recently enough deceased and under very specific circumstances of death that left the body relatively intact and undamaged, could be revitalized. There is a window after brain death in which the body is still relatively active and can be saved. Some people have been brought back from the brink of death many hours after they should have died because of extraordinary circumstance. This would be little different, only with a wider window of opportunity granted by the V-Serum."

"You've said in the past that you didn't want to approach the government." Haku observed, and Miku's father raised his hands to peer over them intently once more.

"I do not wish to speak ill of your family, Haku…"

"This is my family now." She said, and she felt squeezes on her knees. She'd been so wrapped up in the story that she'd forgotten her girlfriend's hands were on her legs. "Not them."

Motsu gave a slow nod if acceptance. "Once we realized the potential for all of this, for how expensive it would all be, for how world changing it could become, your parent's thoughts… changed. They spoke less and less about saving lives and began taking more about what the government could do with our breakthroughs. They had the thought one day that they could weaponize the design. After all, with an infinite power source and nanites to manage it, why not make it as appealing to the government as possible? We sell it to them as a process to reuse fatally injured soldiers and make a fortune. It was with this in mind that they developed the sonic energy conductors and inplamplants that would augment your muscle speed and agility, improving reaction times and allowing you to produce devastating sonic booms."

"We had a fundamental disagreement on morality with them." Mira said quietly. "We wanted only to save lives through medical means, but they argued that a strong weapon deterrent could prevent future wars, saving lives before they were ever in danger. We argued, and eventually split apart when we were unable to reconcile our differences. And so, nothing ever came of our work. Not until…" she trailed off with a pained look on her face, and Miku spoke into that silence.

"Until my accident." The twintailed girl said, and her parents nodded sadly. She looked up at them, a confused look in her hurt expression. "But why weaponize me? If that was their idea and not yours, if you only wanted to save my life, why include the sonics and the muscle augments and all that?"

The director gestured vaguely at the world outside the office window, "Because we couldn't say for sure what would come of all this. We had no idea if the Yowanes would make good on their threats, or if the government would get wind of things and try to take you. With such uncertainties the best thing we could think to do was to fully arm you for defensive purposes, to guard you against the unknown."

"And then the souldrinkers began appearing?" Luka asked.

"Yes, them." He let out a sigh, a sound like paper ripping. "We still don't know what's making them or why. Our best theory before was that some of the nanites had gotten away from a Vocaloid at some point and malfunctioned. They can, under certain conditions, self replicate so it was all we could think had occurred."

"But without the V-Core to power them wouldn't the nanites eventually decharge and become inert?" Haku wanted to know.

"Well, yes, if they're not in contact with any other power source." The doctor answered. " _Any_ other power source can be adapted. A magnetic field is ideal because that way they don't have to stop what they're doing, but they could even attach to a biological electrical current for a bit of charge."

"Like the heart."

"Yes, though not ideal this could sustain them for a time." Mira agreed.

"But now we know it's not a random malfunction." Luka said with a concerned look. "If Juon-san can program them, can make souldrinkers, then somehow she can produce the effect on purpose. And if she herself has souldrinker abilities…" She trailed off into silence and everyone looked at Haku nervously.

"It means my parents created them." She filled in for everyone. "It means they created us as prototype hybrids." Eyes widened in surprise and Haku sighed. "Juon-san told me my parents made us both with similar templates. I was the first, she was the second. I have souldrinker abilities, though I haven't really seen them or used them yet. At first I didn't believe her, but it's all in my father's notes on my… construction." Everyone was looking at her like she was an alien now and she shrank back into her chair flushing in embarrassment. "What? It's not like I did it…"

Director and Doctor Hatsune traded extremely concerned looks and abruptly the atmosphere in the office changed, became tense, and the grim looks on their faces was suddenly extremely worrying. Whatever it was her lovers caught it and they both surged to their feet to stand in front of her protectively. "No you can't! I won't let you!" Luka said right atop Miku's protest "You promised you'd accept my girlfriends!"

Turning their gazes back to the girls the Hatsunes considered them for a long few moments before Mira smiled reassuringly. "Don't worry, we're not considering anything rash. She's clearly not a souldrinker or she'd be mindless."

"That is not to say we don't have... concerns however." Motsu added. "We will have to discuss what to do about this, do some testing, perhaps dig into your code a bit, Haku. With your permission of course."

Haku gave a weak nod. "We can… perhaps talk about it later. When we've all had time to consider matters?"

He gave a nod. "Of course, that would be a wise idea."

"In the meantime," The Doctor said with a more genuine smile. "Why don't you girl's run along? I believe Miku said something about going out to see the Christmas lights…?"

Haku and Luka blinked and looked at the twintailed girl and Miku flushed and stomped her foot. "Mo-om!" She objected loudly, but her parents just smiled at her more widely and Miku blushed harder, took the other two girls' hands, and pulled them out the office door.

"Sooooo…" Luka said slyly with one of her small private smiles for Miku. "You're taking us to see the Christmas lights…?"

Miku's blush deepend. "Y-yeah?! And?!"

The pink haired beauty waved a hand in the air. "Nothing, nothing. It just, you know, sounds suspiciously like a date is all."

The pretty light blue haired girl coughed a bit. "So what if it is?"

"Well, then I might like that." Luka said wistfully, looking off another direction. "Haku-chin might too."

They turned their heads to look at her but Haku was lost in her own thoughts for the moment as they walked along, and it took a nudge from Miku to bring her head up. "Ha?"

"Are you alright Haku-chin?" Luka asked in concern.

"Hm? Oh, fine… just thinking…"

"Don't let it bother you," Miku said. "Mom and dad won't do anything to you, it's fine." Miku giggled. "You were so confident the way you stood up to my dad. I've only ever seen Luka-chin talk to him that way before."

Luka smirked. "Maybe I'm rubbing off on you."

Haku blushed and shook her head, "No… not I was scared the whole time, but… I mean, I wasn't thinking about that, but about everything else."

"What else?" Luka wanted to know.

"A few things about some of the details they told us doesn't quite add up in my mind…" Haku mused as they rounded a corner. "Cold fusion in a miniaturized form… magnetic fields inside a biological body for an extended period of time… nanites and mimetic fluid…"

Miku threw her hands up and let out an exasperated sigh. "Is science and stuff all you ever think about Haku-chin?! We're going out on a romantic date! Let it go for a little while! Think about your girlfriends! I- eep!" She cut off with a squeak as Haku caught her hand pulled the other girl in for a kiss, pressing their lips together and running a hand over her hair. It was a quick but tender kiss and when she parted Miku was left giggling at her, and ever one to take proper turns Haku leaned her head to the side expecting and knowing Luka would be there for her kiss, and she was. Her girlfriends tasted like banana strawberry creme from their breakfast, and when Luka leaned back she smiled at the other girls, leaning in to brush her lips across Miku's as well.

"If you want to talk about us," Haku said as they resumed walking down the corridor. "I think maybe we should address our concerns from yesterday while we're walking." They came into the dorm ward and made their way toward their bedrooms to get their coats.

"Which concerns?" Luka asked.

"The concerns about our feelings and insecurities." Haku said. "So we can get them out of the way."

Miku made a face as they stepped first into Haku's room. "Do we need to talk about that while we're on a date? That doesn't seem very romantic."

Haku retrieved her purple and black parka and her black velvety gloves then followed them out to Luka's room, but it was the pink haired beauty herself who answered that. "Haku-chin is probably right." She said as she dug out a dark pink coat that was heavier than her earlier parka. She also found a pair of gloves, satiny pink ones that almost exactly matched her hair. "If we get it out of the way then it won't be bothering us later… you know… tonight."

Miku blushed brilliantly but no more than Haku did, and the idol gave a crystal laugh and ushered them across the hall to Miku's room where the twintailed girl went all out with her attire. Bright blue thick coat, teal scarf, black gloves and earmuffs. They stared at her a minute and she looked back and all but whined, "What?! I don't like the cold! Haku-chin is crazy!"

They all giggled at that, even Miku. Haku did like the cold, but she was most looking forward to having some time with her girlfriends to just be together. On their way out Luka stopped in her room one last time to get some fuzzy pink earmuffs but Haku thought she was just doing it to make Miku feel better. She also started to wonder at the sheer amount of pink things Luka owned. The idol must do it on purpose, but it was still a little ridiculous. Once outside they looked to Miku who pointed off in one direction. "I heard the best lights are starting to go up in that direction." Luka nodded and they turned to go but the twintailed girl stopped them with a slight flush.

"What is it?" Luka asked.

"Well…" Miku's face turned a little redder. "Christmas is a time for… for lovers to go out and… and hold hands and look at that lights, right?" She actually scuffed her foot on the pavement sheepishly and Haku thought she could have absolutely melted inside at how adorable Miku was. "And… and this _is_ a date… right?"

Haku looked at Luka and got a smile from the pink haired beauty and she felt another flush of her own heating her cheeks, but they reached out together and took up one of Miku's hands each, Luka to her right and Haku to her left. Miku let out a little squee of delight and squeezed their hands as they all began making their way down the street in the cold evening winter air. It had snowed the night before but only a little had stuck, yet it was enough to line the sidewalk and street if not blanket it and it was enough to make the beauty of the scenery seem enchanting. The lights they began to come across only a few blocks away were very pretty, all different colors strung all over houses and businesses alike. People bustled about shopping or meeting friends or even other couples doing as they were, holding hands and strolling about to look at the lights. It was a festive atmosphere and Haku was practically soaking it all in. Even the pixelated mosaic multicolored datastreams flowing through the air she could see seemed only to compliment the light show.

"So how shall we have our talk?" Luka asked after a time of walking and admiring the view.

"I think," Haku said carefully, wanting to be reasonable without spoiling the mood. "We should tell each other our worries." She felt Miku's hand reflexively squeeze hers in response and saw worried looks on the two pretty faces beside her and added, "Not just to share, but to let the other two dispel our doubts. After all, if we believed a lie because we were afraid it was true, who better to prove it a lie? Luka-chin, you once said that in a relationship, it was natural to feel self doubt, but you had to trust in the judgement of those who care about you, right?"

Luka shook her head in surprise, "You bring up things at the most inopportune times… or maybe the most opportune. I don't know how you do it. Yes, I suppose I did say that, and I believe it."

"Then I think we should just tell each other our fears and let the others wash them away. No arguments, no justifications. We have to agree to accept what the others tell us as their belief and not doubt their words. Alright?" Haku asked, and when she got nods she took a deep breath. It was all well and good to say but that didn't stop butterflies from springing up again. "I'll start."

"You don't have to, we could just-" Miku objected for politeness sake but Haku shook her head.

"One of us has to start, so I will. It was my idea after all." She took one more deep breath then began, her face growing redder by the word. "I worry I'm not as refined as you both are, not as graceful, not as poised, and I'm not pretty enough. I'm afraid that… that the world of music, of being an idol and being famous, is a world where you can have whatever you want or… or whoever you want. You're both so gorgeous you could literally have anyone you chose to be with, and I'm afraid that… that…" she choked up, could feel her throat closing up on her, could feel tears stinging her eyes. She heard little strangled noises coming from the other two, objections on the tips of their tongues she knew, but they were biting their lips to keep from saying anything until she was finished, and she forced the rest of the words out, pushing them out in a rush. "I'm afraid you'll get bored off me, I'm afraid I'm too plain and that I'm an idle diversion and you'll move on to someone prettier and more deserving!" She gasped out a sob and withdrew her hand from Miku's to splay all ten fingers over her face, stopping where she was to try to hide her shame, crying through her gloved fingers. She hadn't been worried about that last part until Kiku had mentioned it down in the lab but it had wormed it's way onto her insecurities all the same. She felt arms going around her shoulders and waist and felt herself sandwiched between the other two and looked up.

"Haku-chin, I told you before that I thought you were an absolute angel." Luka's crystalline voice was soft and tender and rang of sincerity. "I didn't just mean that I thought you were kind and gentle, I meant you were as beautiful and radiant as one too. Even if I did have other options at my fingertips as an idol, it doesn't matter because I already have exactly what I want." Her jaw firmed in a set way and a note of determination hardened her voice. "'Deserving' doesn't even enter into it. I love you more than anything, more than anyone, right alongside Miku-chin, and I will stand by you and protect you both forever."

"You… you can't love us both 'the' most." Haku mumbled.

Luka just gave her back one of those small private smiles of hers. "You said no arguments, no justifications, remember? I love you both the most."

"You shouldn't forget that you're an idol now, too. You are in that same world of music and fame as we are and you can have anything that we can." Miku pointed out, making Haku blink in surprise. "Whether you think you're plain or not, whether you think we're being honest or not, the proof is there. Have you ever seen an ugly idol? Hmmmmmmm?" Haku's red eyes went wide and her stomach did a little flip flop as she thought about that, finally shaking her head as Miku giggled. "You're just as beautiful as you think we are, Haku-chin, and like Luka-chin says, I've already got exactly what I want in you both."

Haku squeezed them back as they held on to her and she sniffled and let out a little giggle. In a surprising way she found she really did feel prettier, and it made her so happy inside to hear them say these things. "Thank you. I love you both so much."

Luka started to open her mouth but Miku reached up to the taller girl and put a finger over her lips. "Can… can I go next? Please?" Luka blinked but nodded and gave a little kiss to the twintailed girl's gloved finger on her lips. Miku smiled appreciatively, lowered her hand, took a deep breath, and in classic Miku fashion let it all out in a rush. "So a lot of the problems I have are the things Juon-san said to me when I talked to her and I know she was just trying to get in my head and give be the wiggins about things but whatever insight she was using was all completely accurate cuz like she said you two are extremely beautiful creatures and well that's totally obviously true-" she gestured at them with a hand movement like 'duh see?' but didn't slow her tirade, her face getting redder by the word as Haku's had. "-and that you two looked so gorgeous together, so natural with each other, that I… I mean I'm so… much less with the raw beauty and how could I possibly measure up to you two?! Like seriously you look like you belong on a magazine cover together or something and well you've both… saved my life and that could create complicated feelings like maybe you feel sorry for me or something and that I'm just wedging my way between you so you have to accept me and I mean like it's true isn't it cuz you both totally kissed first and then I come along and… and… well… maybe I'm forgetting something but that's all I guess she said but I'm so worried… " She squinted a moment trying to remember but her cheeks were on fire and it was Luka that offered the missing piece.

"The star struck thing?" That pink haired beauty offered. "She said that part to me too."

Miku snapped her fingers. "That was it!" She wiped at her eyes, fresh tears leaking down her cheeks, but she didn't sob outright as Haku had. "I'm just afraid I'm not… I dunno… worthy of you both I guess." Her chime like voice was tremulous, maybe she would have cried after all, but Luka spoke up.

"Miku-chin, remember the other day what I said in the bathroom? That just because you're pretty and cute doesn't make you any less beautiful than me?" Miku nodded and Luka brushed at a tear on the shorter girl's cheek. "I meant it. I promise you it's true. You're beautiful in a different way, and like you yourself said to Haku-chin, you're an idol, and that's proof right there. As for the 'worthy' thing… Miku-chin I can promise you something else." She smiled as Miku tilted her head curiously. "Even if we'd never met Haku-chin, you and I would still be together. You mean everything to me." Miku blushed hard and giggled, putting a hand to her mouth as she did.

"I find it interesting that we both worry about being petty enough for the other two, Miku-chin." Haku said, drawing the twintailed girl's green eyes to her. "I think you're absolutely the most adorable girl I've ever seen in my life and Luka-chin is totally right, that may be different than how you see us but I'm completely positive you'd be right there on that magazine cover beside us." Miku's blush deepened but Haku wasn't done. "If you weren't worthy you wouldn't have gotten Luka-chin's attention, and even if we kissed before you, you had her heart before me… and you have mine too now. As for the rest… well, unless I'm wrong Luka-chin is going to speak on that too, and I'll answer it then?"

They blinked at her then nodded slowly and Luka squeezed her blue eyes shut, talking with them closed, her crystal voice steady if quiet despite her cheeks reddening as had theirs. "I've saved both of your lives, and Juon-san was quick to point this out. I don't want either of you feeling like this means you owe me anything. You've both done the same for me, we do it out of love, not leverage against each other. She also pointed out the idol thing, the stardom, and the thought of Haku-chin simply being starstruck. But she also said…" Luka had to swallow here and a single tear escaped the corner of one closed eye but when she went on her voice was still steady. "She called me names like lecher and pervert, for leading on two beautiful girls when one should be enough for anyone. She accused me of forcing you both to accept each other too or else lose me all together, of not giving you a choice in the matter. It all sounded horrific… but possible… I just… I didn't want either of you to… think of me like that…" Her voice faltered and her jaw worked soundlessly for another moment like she wanted to say more, but finally she closed her mouth with a click of her teeth.

Having never let go of each other after Haku had let her worries out they both squeezed the pink haired beauty in a collective hug and a moment later Luka squeezed back.

"You're not a lecher or a pervert," Miku said immediately. "People like that are unhealthily obsessed with things like panties or getting other people into bed and moving on to other prospects. You just wanted us, and it's not like that was even your plan, or any of our plans, in the first place. This all just sort of happened, we can't help how wet feel about each other and that doesn't make it wrong. Saved lives or not, two of us or three, all girls or not, it doesn't change the love and devotion we feel, right?"

Luka fluttered her eyes open at the other girl and poked her in the side making the twintailed girl let out a squeak. "Miku-chin, that was actually really eloquent."

Miku shifted a hand from Luka and rubbed at her side, sticking her tongue out. "I can be eloquent!"

The pink haired beauty nodded as smiled, "I know, I'm sorry. I just…" her smile slipped a bit and she sighed.

"I'm not starstruck." Both girls turned their gazes up to Haku with surprised looks at the intensity in her silvery voice. "Maybe in the beginning when I first met you both I was a little." She amended before continuing. "But it had nothing to do with what developed between us, I can promise you both that, and I can also promise you both that the life saving thing has nothing to do with it either, except that I will continue to do it and expect you both to as well so we can be together for as long as possible. Like Miku-chin said, none of the rest of it matters, what's important is our love, and that we don't doubt each other again."

They were both nodding and Luka brushed at Haku's cheek. "You're right, of course. You both say I'm the strong one, and I want to live up to that, but… I have my worries too, which is why Juon-san was able to manipulate me." She sighed again and shook her head. "Manipulated all of us. I think the mistake we made was listening to her."

"The mistake we made," Haku interjected quietly by way of correction, "Was not talking to each other about it."

They both looked at her again, starting into her eyes, then they nodded in agreement. "Never again." Miku said. "From now on, we have to talk to each other wherever we're bothered by the others."

"And if we need time to think it through first, that's fine too." Haku added. "Just no secrecy. We can tell each other 'It's about this thing, but I'm not ready to talk yet.' that way we can have space without worrying, and we can talk it out later."

"Absolutely." Luka said, and with that it was as though a weight was lifted from them. They traded kisses, one after the other, until each had gotten one from the other two, blushing and giggling in turn, then they reclaimed each other's hands and resumed their date walking around looking at the Christmas lights. It felt so good being out with the women she loved so much that Haku kept casting sideways glances at them, starting at her girlfriends as much as she did the Christmas lights, maybe more so. The cold winter air felt wonderful, biting at her hips and legs and gloved fingers, and every so often she shifted around one or the other of them to rearrange who was holding who's hands. It didn't seem fair that only one of them could hold both of the other two's hands at once depending on who was in the middle, but if they took turns at everything else this only seemed natural too. Miku and Luka just giggled at her but shifted with her without objection whenever she did. They each wanted to hold both of the others as well after all. They walked on for nearly two hours just enjoying each other and the pretty lights before she noticed Miku shivering despite her bulky bundling and Haku turned her head to Luka who was in the middle right then.

"We should probably get back before Miku-chin turns into a popsicle."

"No! I'm f-fine!" Miku objected, unable to keep her teeth from chattering a bit. "I'm having a great t-time!" She sounded like she meant it, but Haku was worried for her.

"How about…" Luka tapped her chin in thought the way she did when she had already thought everything out and was making it seem like a sudden idea instead. "We take a different route back so we can enjoy looking at the lights some more, then when we get home we can… warm each other up…?" She drew that last part out slowly and suggestively and Haku could hear Miku's swallow echo her own, both eager to agree.

They stopped to get okonomiyaki at a corner shop they passed as they shifted blocks to change their route back since they'd talked with Miku's parents all afternoon and walked around through dinner as they looked at the lights. They each ordered one in the Kansai style so they could easily wrap them like a crepe and take them to go. They nibbled as they walked, pointing at particularly pretty light setups, though Haku noticed Miku cradled hers in her hands for a long time, absorbing as much of the warmth out of it as she could before she really started taking bites of it. She glanced at her other girlfriend and by the look on Luka's face she'd noticed too. Once they were done with their food Haku casually slid around to Miku's other side and took up the twintailed girl's right hand while Luka captured her left, and they each did their best to envelop each hand in their own to keep them warm for the pretty light blue haired girl as they walked. At one point along the way Miku seemed to sense on some level that she'd been in the middle too long for turn taking and tried to shift places with Luka, but the pink haired beauty just smiled at her and shook her head, as when Miku turned her gaze to Haku she smiled and squeezed their hands together more firmly. They walked the whole way back like that, enjoying what lights they could as well as each other's presences.

Once back inside the Compound they went straight to the bathroom and began stripping off their clothes. The blushes and sidelong looks began in earnest as all three girls began to feel heat rising inside them. They'd been apart for weeks, lonely and worried and needing the others, and Haku was jealous that they'd had each other for comfort. They glanced her way while they put their dirty clothes in the hamper and she blinked at them. "What is it?"

"We're just so happy you're home." Luka told her with a smile. "We missed you, and it was hard not to do anything… intimate… while you were gone."

Haku's red eyes widened in surprise. "You mean you… didn't…?" They shook their heads and she couldn't stop an incredulous "Why not?!"

It was their turn to blink in surprise, green and blue eyes fluttering prettily. "Because you weren't here!" Miku said as though it were obvious. "It didn't feel right without you!" She shut the hamper and they all gathered up their soap baskets and made their way into the washing areas, taking seats beside each other, Haku landing in the middle this time.

"You shouldn't feel like you have to." She told them. "I understand, really. If we're separated again…" she blushed, and even felt a little jealous, but they were in a three way relationship, they had to be accommodating. "Just don't feel like you have to is all." She finished weakly, reaching into her basket for her body wash.

They traded meaningful looks over top of her head and Miku nudged her. "We didn't feel like we had to. We wanted to because you were in trouble." She let out a giggle. "It's not like you were on a holiday or something."

"You're a part of us, and you weren't okay." Luka added. "Of course we waited."

Haku felt her cheeks heating up even more. "I… guess I'd feel the same way…" she murmured as they all began soaping themselves with their loofahs. "I guess… I just don't want to… be in the way. I think we should feel free to... pair off if and when circumstances happen to go that way."

"That sounds reasonable…" Miku said obviously trying to sound nonchalant but her cheeks were just as red as Haku's were. They took several minutes in silence as they washed themselves diligently, none able to stop from admiring the others, especially when they took turns one at a time to run to the sink to brush their teeth once they'd finished washing and rinsing themselves, and when all three were back they blinked at the tub then each other and, ever one to take the lead, the pink haired beauty smiled.

"Well, for now… we are all here…" Luka's blush was much fainter than the other two's were but it was there, and abruptly Haku felt arms sliding around her.

"L-Luka-chin! What we you- aaaaaaahhh!" She let out a low moan as she felt the pink haired beauty's hands begin to slide over her slippery tummy, coming dangerously close to places she yearned for them to be.

"Oh I'm just helping you wash, that's all." Luka replied coyly, that small private smile playing at her lips. She reached out and took Haku's poof from her and began to run it along her skin, the coarse fibers making her extra sensitive to Luka's fingers sliding along gently in it's wake feeling even more smooth and sensual. She felt her desire for her girlfriends bloom into full need, felt herself grow wet in a way that had nothing to do with the bath, and she began to squirm and fidget on her stool.

"Aaaaaaahhh… Luka-chin…" Haku moaned as her breathing started to become rapid. "What if… someone comes in…?"

"No one's going to come in." Luka sounded amused but she was starting to breath faster too, and her flush didn't look like it was just from the embarrassment anymore. "Teto and Gumi are out for the evening, and there's no one else that might use this bathroom." One of her hands drifted up Haku's tummy toward her chest and the other down it toward her mound, little soap bubbles rising along her skin in a trail behind Luka's fingers from the loofah. She moaned at the feel of her girlfriend's soft hands on her tender skin and didn't even notice when Luka dropped the loofah as she surrendered to the pink haired beauty's electrifying touch. She shuddered involuntarily as a tingle ran up her tummy and she heard Luka giggle. "Haku-chin, you're so sensitive."

Haku blushed harder yet but she shifted a bit to lean more fully against Luka's naked wet body. Their slick skin slid together and the idol hugged her to her and let the hand coming up Haku's chest cup one of her full breasts. "Ooooooohhhh, that's… that's because you're… touching me like this…"

"Oh you missed it. Didn't you?" Luka asked, and for answer Haku turned her head up and arched her balk a little so she could place her lips against her lover's mouth. Luka let out a little moan of her own at the passionate kiss as their tongues began to twine together, and Haku whimpered in the embrace as she felt the hand on her breast gently pinch and tug at her nipple. They were in the bathroom, in a place with the potential of getting caught even if it wasn't that likely, but somehow that only made it more exciting. She'd missed her girlfriends so much, every day away from them had been agony. She needed them now, and she knew they needed her, had missed her, wanted her, desired her. She actually felt desirable, felt sexy to them, and it was such a good feeling it almost made her weep with joy. Luka continued to ply her mouth with kisses and ignite her body with need with her hands for several long deliciously agonizing minutes before finally pulling her head back just a bit to glance up, their mouths breaking apart with little gasps. Haku lifted her head with her tongue partly out and her eyes half lidded to follow her gaze as the pink haired beauty looked to the their other partner. "Want to help me… clean her up, Miku-chin?"

Miku nodded fervently and Haku saw that the green eyed girl had been shamelessly touching herself while watching as one of her girlfriends had ambushed the other, but given this opening she scooted her stool forward with a look such desire on her pretty face it was practically a ravenous hunger. Luka scooched her stool against Haku's so their hips were in direct contact and Haku could feel Luka's mound press against her rear, and the blue eyed beauty shifted her lower hand to brace Haku's hip in place. "You've gotten all soapy again from Luka-chin grabbing your poof, Haku-chin." Miku said breathlessly. "Let me help you with that." She took up a shower nozzle and pulled some of the hose slack free and began to run the water sensuously over Haku's body, rinsing off the soap even as Luka continued to caress her and tug and roll her nipples one after the other with thumb and forefinger. Once all the soap was gone everywhere else Miku gently urged Haku's legs open, and she let her do it, spreading them apart for the pretty light blue haired girl and letting her head lean back against Luka's shoulder. Miku turned the nozzle delicately against Haku's groin a little at a time until the water was flowing right against her and she felt shocks of pleasure begin to ripple through her from the spray against her clit. She moaned loudly and her hips jerked reflexively but Luka's forethought with her hand braced and their hips together kept her on her stool.

"Ohhhhhhhhh…" Haku moaned. "Miku-chin… Luka-chin…" she gasped their names as they worked at her. After a few minutes of gasping and panting she lifted her head and bit her lip. " Miku-chin… I…"

"Yes?" Miku replied, raising her green eyes up to meet red with that same hungry look. "What would you like, Haku-chin?" Her cheeks were almost as red as Haku's own but that didn't stop her uttering in a sultry tone, "Just ask, I'll do anything you want."

Haku panted harder at that, feeling like fire was racing through her veins. "Your… your mouth… please I… I want to… feel you… please…" Miku just smiled at her and leaned her blazing red face down to Haku's groin, slowly, deliberately, and stretched her tongue out towards Haku's smooth slit. She started with the outer lips, kissing and licking as she worked her way in, then the instant her lover's soft tongue touched her nub her hips and legs spasmed and she nearly hit her release right then so far had they wound her up, but she pressed back again Luka a little more firmly and bit her lip harder to hold it in a little longer, a stifled moan escaping through her teeth. She reached her arms up and behind her to circle them around the back of Luka's head, tangling her fingers in those gorgeous pink locks, arching her back and sticking her large breasts out further. Miku started slow and worked at her clit with her tongue, up and down then around then along the sides, then dipped the tip into her soft folds, sliding her tongue inside her, and Luka continued with her nipples with one hand but she moved the other to caress along Haku's sides and tummy in a loving way.

"That's it, Haku-chin." Luka breathed hotly on her ear. "That's it. You're here with us, and we love you." She squeezed her white haired exotic beauty with her arms as she caressed her, continuing to murmur loving words in her ear. "That's it… we love you…"

Haku was on fire but she felt sexy and desired, she felt loved and wanted, she felt cared for and happy and all she wanted in the world were these two gorgeous women with her. She gasped and panted and moaned and finally could hold it in no longer, closing her eyes as she felt it coming from deep inside her. "M-Miku-c-chin…! L-Luka-c-chin…!" She arched her back hard against Luka as she began to buck in climax. "I… I l-love you! I love…! I love you! I loooooooooooaaaaaaaahhhhhh! AAAAAAAAAHHHHH!" Her rear braced against her stool and she pressed her mound up firmly against Miku's face as she came. Something snapped and she felt her bottom shift downwards but she barely registered it as she orgasmed harder than she ever had in her life, her whole body twitching and spasming as her girlfriends held her in their loving embrace. She wasn't sure if she blacked out from the pleasure or just stopped registering anything else for a moment, but when she opened her eyes again Luka and Miku were still holding on to her, cradling her between them and stroking her affectionately, petting her head and shoulders, legs and hips. It was an emotional release as much as a sexual one, and she enjoyed the tenderness as much as the physical intimacy. What was surprising to her was that she was laying on the floor. She looked around in confusion as the haze of her climax slowly lifted from her mind and a sharp jab in her hip made her twitch to the side. She made her fingers let go of Luka's hair and she reached underneath herself to slide the ruined stool out from under her, two of the plastic legs bent sideways and the other two broken off all together. They all blinked at it then started giggling insanely.

"I guess they weren't made for… that." Luka said, then lifted her arms free to embrace Miku as the shorter girl came in for a kiss, licking at each other's tongues and lips. Haku always blushed when they shared her taste, but it only served to heighten her desire for them, and her want to give them as good as she'd gotten.

"Maybe…" she muttered as they finished cleaning Miku's mouth of her juices. "Maybe we should move to the tub…?" They nodded and all got up to go over to the giant bathtub and as soon as they sat on the edge Miku and Luka both went for her again, petting and caressing her lovingly, and as much as she enjoyed the attention she pulled away slightly. "I need to batch my breath." She said trying to sound coy the way Luka was so good at. "I know you two must have had a difficult time not doing anything without me. Please, go ahead."

"What about you?" Miku asked.

Haku shook her head. "Oh I'm not going anywhere." She leaned in to brush a kiss against first Miku's lips then Luka's, the faint taste of herself still on their lips. "I'm right here with you, I promise."

They both smiled at her with their beautiful smiles, and Luka shifted her attention to Miku then rotated herself to lay back on the ledge of the huge tub, which was just wide enough for her. She held her arms out to Miku and smiled that coy smile of hers that Haku had tried to emulate and said in a tone that matched it, "Come here, Miku-chin." The pretty light blue haired girl didn't need to be told twice, bounding up to her feet and moving over to the curvier girl. Using her hands to indicate how to turn and step Luka got one of Miku's legs over her into the tub so she was straddling her face, then wrapped her arms around Miku's slender hips to pull her smooth slit down to Luka's lips.

Miku blushed furiously, "Oh my god this is such an embarrassing positiooooooooooaaaaaaaaaaaahhh!" She let out a long moan as Luka's tongue slid into her damp folds and began to lick. Her hips bucked convulsively and she pitched forward to catch the edge of the tub on either side of Luka's legs with her hands. Her hips began to rotate as she pressed her groin down more firmly against Luka's face murmuring "Ooooooooohhh Luka-chin! Oooooohhhh!" The pink haired beauty's legs shifted open invitingly and suddenly Miku understood and leaned further forward, bending down to reciprocate the treatment she was receiving. Luka gasped against the other girl's groin and soon enough they were lapping at each other and panting together against their mounds as they each attempted to give as they were getting.

Haku watched her girlfriends licking and slurping at reach other much more vigorously than Miku had done to her minutes before. Apparently their excitement had built up while they were loving on her and now were just desperately trying to feel each other. Deciding that as glorious a sight as they made she couldn't just sit there and watch, Haku moved over and leaned her head down beside Miku's. The pretty girl's green eyes were glazed over with lust but she smiled with boundless love and Haku leaned closer still. They had to shift their heads around a bit so they could both reach with their mouths but they managed to get their tongues wrestling together against Luka's clit. Luka moaned loudly against Miku's nub and Miku in turn shuddered as the girl beneath her redoubled her efforts. Haku stroked Luka's legs, thighs and hips tenderly as she helped Miku in her licking, their tongues bumping against each other as they worked their way up and down and around Luka's folds. The pink haired beauty's scent filled Haku's nose even as her juices washed through her mouth and she thought it was one of the most intoxicating tastes in the world. They lost themselves in the their licking until the crystalline voice came to them thick with passion.

"So hot…" The ravishing idol moaned against Miku's groin. "With you both together I… I…!" All at once Haku felt a gush hit her lips and she worked on lapping at it hungrily, competing with Miku for each drop of the delicious nectar as Luka clung to the hips of the girl above her, her entire body shuddering as her hole positively quivered and pulsed against their tongues. She moaned loudly against Miku's pearl as she released hard into their faces and it was all any of them could do to just hold on. When Luka finally sagged back against the tub ledge panting the other two stopped to look back at the pink haired beauty and Luka eyed them over Miku's rump. "That… was… oh it's embarrassing but I needed that. I needed you both."

They smiled at her and Haku leaned up to press her lips to Miku's, bringing the green eyed girl's attention back around to her so they could share Luka's taste, licking each other's lips and tongues clean even as they kissed. Haku loved kissing her girlfriends, their lips so soft, their tongues so needful. When they parted with little gasps for air Haku could see the lust in Miku's eyes, the build up of getting both of them off first plain on her pretty face. She put her hands to Miku's shoulders and gently pushed the slightly shorter girl upright so she was sitting up atop Luka's face once more and the pink haired beauty responded fervently, redoubling her efforts licking at the girl atop her. Miku gasped and moaned and leaned her hands down to brace on her own thighs as she rocked herself back and forth in quick little humps against Luka's face and tongue. Haku again found herself just staring at the glorious sight again before giving a little start and moving forward once more. She latched her lips to one of the light blue haired girl's nipples and began to suckle on it, rolling it with her tongue then tugging at it with her lips, then switching to the other one for a bit. With her doing that and Luka plying her clit with her tongue and the lust raging through her from the build up of helping the other two first Miku didn't last much longer, letting out a brief high pitched, "H-Haku-c-chin! I…! P-Please, I…!" Then a loud moan and her whole body began to convulse. Haku caught her as she shook and twitched with her orgasm and pressed their lips together again. Miku plunged her tongue into Haku's mouth passionately and moaned into it as their tongues twined even as she continued shaking and riding out her climax on Luka's face. Finally spent she let herself slip back off her girlfriend's face and sat on the tub ledge panting for air. "Oh. My. God. I might die of embarrassment… but it was so worth it."

"Don't die, I'm not done with you yet." Luka said, looking up and back at her from her position on the tub edge. She might have said more but Haku found she couldn't wait and dove for her, licking and kissing at Luka to share Miku's taste, pressing her naked body lengthwise along her idol's, arms of both going around the other's heads as they made out for a minute or two. When their lips were finally cleaned off Luka pushed up against Haku gently, and she tilted her head. "I've missed you so terribly. Haku-chin, and I know Miku-chin has too. I think we all three needed this… but I'm afraid I'm just not satisfied yet."

Haku blinked down at Luka, her face flushing again and her stomach doing a little flip flop. "What… what do you mean?" She asked, suddenly worried. "Was I…" she swallowed hard thinking her cheeks might actually catch fire. "... not good…?"

Miku squeaked in wordless protest (Haku wasn't sure how she could tell what kind of squeak it was but she could) and Luka shook her head. "You were, and are, fantastic, Haku-chin. I just… haven't had my fill yet." She actually blushed saying this, a rare sight from the gorgeous blue eyed girl, but the look in those eyes was one of ravenous need. "I want to take you, Haku-chin."

Well that was that, Haku was positive her cheeks were melting now. Or glowing at the very least. "T-T-Take me w-w-where…? KYAAAAA!" She let out a squeal as Luka got her arms around her and somehow rolled her off her without actually moving therm anywhere. They just sort of rotated in place with the result that Luka was now laying atop Haku rather than the other way around. She blinked her red eyes up at the radiant woman atop her with a backdrop of the soft light of the bathroom, her cascading pink locks framing her absolutely perfect curvaceous figure and Haku gasped aloud, unable to stop herself, "Gods Luka-chin, you're so gorgeous it's hard to believe…"

"I was just thinking the same…" Miku breathed from above Haku's head.

Luka smiled at them and lifted one of Haku's legs up, and she felt herself spreading open and reached a hand up to cover her face in embarrassment. "You're both just as beautiful, I promise." Luka said with a low heat, remaining poised as she was for a moment, in charge, the dominant of the three of them, the natural lead to the trio. Then she held Haku's leg in place while straddling the other one and lowered herself down until Haku felt the most amazing thing she ever had, gasping and clutching at the tub beneath her.

"Luka-chin!" She felt like she could barely breathe. "Oh my God Luka-chin! Your… I mean I can feel your… against mine…! I…! Oooooooohhh!"

Luka held on to Haku's leg as she panted, "Oh… oh wow…I I couldn't… I mean I had no idea… it would feel _this good_!" She moaned and shifted, lining their slits up more and Haku felt Luka's nub rub directly against hers and very nearly exploded right then, letting out a moan of pure ecstasy. "I'm… I'm going to… to move now, Haku-chin…" Haku could only nod, her head swimming with the the pleasure of Luka's softest most tender spot in direct contact with her own. Then her idol gently rocked their hips together. Their bodies bounced, their large breasts swayed in time, and their slick wet clits slid against each other. Fireworks exploded in Haku's head as she let out another gasping moan. She lost herself completely in the feel of her girlfriend against her, smooth sensitive skin against skin, their most intimate of places rubbing together. Lost herself in the emotions boiling overt inside of her, of pure love for Luka, of actually feeling sexy and desirable to this gorgeous creature atop her. They rocked together, moaned with each other, clutched at the other's body as heat flooded through them, both succumbing to the pleasure of giving themselves fully to the other as they pressed together unable to do anything beyond gasp each other's names. "H-Ha-Haku… chin…"

"L-Lukaaaaaaaaaa…"

"I… can't believe… aaaaaaaaahhhhh…..!"

"So….. so hot….. aaaaaaaahhh!"

"Are… are you… gonna...?!"

"Y...Yes! For… for you! For you!"

"T-Together! Haku-chin! Come with me! Aaaaaaaaahh!"

Haku felt a full body rush, every muscle she possessed spasming all at once. "L-Luka-chin! I'm…!"

"Me too! Ha-Haku…!"

"Luka-chin! I love you! I looooooooaaaaaahhhh!"

"I love you Haaaaaaaaaakuuuuuuuuu! Aaaaaaaahhh!"

Haku was only dimly aware of hands holding her in place as she climaxed hard against Luka at the same time as the other girl. She could feel both of their holes contracting together, could feel their juices mingling and dripping down both of their groins, knew Luka could feel it too, and her head was filled with nothing but the pleasure, nothing but the love, nothing but Megurine Luka, for long moments. The pink haired beauty clung to Haku's leg as she spasmed over top of her, and as they came together their eyes locked and there was nothing but love and passion there. When they finally sagged back, the haze lifting from their minds a bit, Luka leaned down and wrapped her body sound Haku's. She leaned up to wrap her arms around her idol's shoulders in an embrace and again they kissed until they couldn't breathe. She didn't think she could ever get tired of kissing her girlfriends. Girlfriends… she pulled her head back and glanced up to find Miku staring at them, green eyes wide and glazed with hunger once more, fingers of one hand firmly slid inside herself.

"You… two… are… so… hot…" She panted at them. "Can I… can I…? Please?!"

Luka giggled and flicked her tongue against Haku's lips briefly before sliding off her. "Get ready Haku-chin." Her crystalline voice was heated. "You're not done yet."

Haku was still breathing hard and she tried to move a bit but her muscles all felt like water. "I don't know… if I can again… I'll melt…!" But Miku was already scrambling over top of her, taking up Luka's previous position. She slid up eagerly, greedily, gleefully, bracing herself against Haku's leg as Luka had done, and Haku's mind went blank as her still sensitive clit slid up against Miku's.

"Oh… my … God…" Miku gasped. "This is… I've never felt anything like…! Haku-chin! Ooooohhh Haku-chin!" She began rolling her hips against Haku as she'd watched Luka do moments before, their slick nubs shifting together, their most sensitive places touching.

"M-M-Mi-ku-ch-chin! Slow… please! I j-just… came! I'm… I'm still s-so… sensitive….! Mmmmmm! Aaaaaaahhh!"

"I can't… help it…. Haku-chin! Y-Your… I mean you… feel so… amazing… my hips are… moving on their own! Aaaaaaahhh!" If anything she sped up, and once more everything faded away for Haku but the feel of her lover and the joy of being with her girlfriend, only this time it was Miku filling her mind. She wasn't sure how she could tell just by the feel of it, but somehow Miku's clit touching hers felt different than Luka's but just as good, just as wonderful, just as fulfilling. One of her girlfriend's desired her and loved her as much as the other one and it was such a euphoric feeling. She felt arms on her shoulders again and she looked up to see her blue eyed angel having traded places with Miku now cradling her as the shorter girl rode her, and the love and tenderness combined with her still sensitive pearl being overestimated was just too much. It didn't take long before she was twitching and spasming once more as Luka cooed in her ear.

"Mi… ku… chin… I… love… you…" she gasped between pants as she climaxed yet again.

"I love you… Haku-chin…" Miku panted back as she began to buck and shake against Haku in return, the intensity of their love making on top of her playing with herself earlier while watching too much for the pretty light blue haired girl. She leaned down to kiss Haku as they orgasmed together as Luka had done, and the pink haired beauty cradled them both and stroked their hair while they did. They stayed that way for long minutes before they all finally started getting their breath back, their heartbeats beginning to recede to normal, and Luka giggled.

"I think we need to wash up again."

"Probably a good idea." Miku agreed breathily.

"Okay, but after that… I want a nice long soak together." Haku told them. "I missed that while I was gone."

Luka and Miku both nodded at that. "Us too!" They agreed.


	26. Vocaloid Academy Chapter 26

"This is a _really_ nice car you stole, Haku-chin." Miku bubbled from the driver seat of the Maserati as she poked about the electronics and amongst the dashboard, startling Haku out of her reverie. She'd been banished to the sidelines to watch her girlfriends going over the Grantourismo after she'd mistaken the frame and the supports on the underside of it… or maybe it had been the… what had Luka called it? Roll bars…? What did they roll…? She could download mechanical information all day long but raw knowledge did not apparently make her a mechanic and after getting in their way more than helping they had rather politely suggested she 'keep an eye on things from the side' but it had been a banishment if she'd ever heard one. Neither of the beautiful idols (the other idols… she had to get used to thinking of herself that way now) had said much in the past few hours beyond muttering to themselves however, and though they didn't want Haku out of their sight since they'd gotten her back, that left her just sitting there, bored, watching. They'd both been extremely over protective of her since her rescue from her parent's lab, and it was sweet really, it made her feel loved, but… it could be stifling at times. So her mind had wandered as she'd sat there, not really paying attention, thinking about the last week since she'd been back. That moment in particular she'd been thinking about waking up with them beside her. They'd made passionate love to her every night she'd been home now, almost as though they were trying to make up for lost time, and she couldn't blame them; the nights she had spent alone in that cold abandoned lab had left her weeping from loneliness missing her lovers so bad it hurt. Yet the best part was waking up beside them each morning. Her eyes tended to flutter open before theirs in the early hours and every day both of the other girls had been snuggled up to either side of her with arms and legs entwined with her limbs no matter in what position they'd fallen asleep the previous night. She spent the half hour or so as the sun finished rising before they would wake up just stroking their hair and watching them sleep, it was so blissful she could hardly stand it.

"I didn't steal it…" she protested as Miku drew her attention from her musings.

"It wasn't yours was it?" The twintailed girl giggled at her.

"Well… I mean not exactly, no…" Haku admitted.

"Then you stole it!"

"Let's call it an inheritance." Luka said from beneath the sports car. All that could be seen of the pink haired beauty was her legs from the knees down sticking out from under the front of the foreign import as she lay on a rolling pad to slide beneath the jacked up car. "Assuming her parents did actually buy that warehouse and everything in it like she says."

"Well whatever, it's gorgeous. Do you guys have any idea what this thing is worth?" Miku continued bubbling. "Really you couldn't have picked a sexier car to steal Haku-chin, I mean I know I was complaining about us needing a super nice car with a back seat but I never imagined it'd be a Maserati I mean I thought we'd end up with like a Toyota or a Nissan or something those brands make some super lame cars but they do have some super cars too that would have been amazing but this thing retails for waaaaaaaaaaaaay more than those do and it's got the whole exotic import vibe going on and I just think it fits you so well like style-wise cuz it's sleek and beautiful and I wonder if it's faster than my Ferrari HEY oh my gosh we should race them that would be so much fun I bet we could have a blast hitting corners with them I think they're the same year and everything so they should be competitive and I bet we could get some solid road time in oh but I guess we'd need to drive out to the country or we might get pulled over not that that would be much problem with the way you drive Haku-chin ahahahahahaha-!"

"Have you found anything in there Miku-chin?" Luka interjected into her giggle fit and Miku shifted her bubbling flow of words.

"-haven't found a thing I don't see what there could be anyway if it was just a car storage warehouse what are the odds they'd have just happened to have bugged the one Haku-chin was going to steal unless you really think they bugged every last one on the off chance one might get taken then but that seems a little on the totally coocoo side to me I mean really how long could that lab have been abandoned for it was still active and maintained or else it couldn't have been used like it was so they must have been planning to go back to it again at some point not like they can now that Haku-chin turned it into a crater which kinda stinks come to think of it how many other super nice cars might have been in there if there was a Maserati just laying there I bet there were tons of other sexy sports cars that are now just hunks of twisted wreckage and-"

Luka slid her rolling pad out from under that car and sat up on it, picking up a rag and wiping at her slender fingers as she looked up. There was very little fresh grease on the faded grey shirt and old black jeans she sometimes wore when working on her motorcycle, which made some sense since the car was so new it hasn't had many miles put on it yet to accumulate much road grime. "I don't think it's likely either but I wanted to check and make sure. I mean, we can't exactly return it can we? And if we took it to the police uncomfortable questions would be posed."

Miku made a face at that as she leaned out of the open driver side door to look down at Luka. "Daddy is already fretting about what Haku-chin said about the witch saying the government has had dealings with her parents, I don't think bringing their attention down on our heads like a ton of bricks is the greatest idea in the world."

"Which leaves us just the option of keeping it, and for that we need to look it over and make sure it's free of anything nefarious, and possibly see about having the Director have someone alter it's DMV records." Luka concluded.

"I've already taken care of that." Haku told them, and her girlfriends turned their heads to look at her, blue and green eyes blinking in such a way as to make her shift on her stool. "... what?"

"You hacked the DMV records?" Luka asked with a dubious ring in her crystalline voice.

"With your _head_?!" Miku chimed.

Haku shrugged uncomfortably. "Why not? It's what I was made for… I'm supposed to be a cyber weapon…'

They both winced at that. She'd shown them parts of her father's files, they knew what she was capable of now. She'd taught them how to see the datastreams, how to interface with WiFi and 4G cellphone signals with their cybernetic systems, and while they thought the wireless signals looked really pretty and were both fully capable of accessing wireless networks with their minds and browsing the internet or computer files with their cyber minds now, neither had the aptitude with computers she did and they always seemed surprised when she did things with her mind. Luka in particular seemed as prone to pull out her phone either from habit or preference, whereas Haku barely touched hers anymore, though she did carry it with her, it had been a gift after all. "What's the big deal?" She asked, mildly embarrassed, picking idly at the fabric of her dark grey pants. Well, darker than her blouse anyway. "It needed done so I did it."

"The big deal is you shouldn't just go off hacking government systems." Luka said sternly. "It could be dangerous, we don't know if there could be anything going on that we don't know about. They might have noticed, and they might be taking precautions against next time."

"You're not a weapon, you're a person." Miku said poutily, and Haku grimaced. It sounded to her too much like her girlfriends were resisting technology, maybe still having a hard time accepting that they were cyborgs, but Haku found that silly. They were what they were, and rather than hide from it she wanted to explore it, wanted to learn about herself, or else how would she ever be able to really master her abilities? She just knew they hadn't taped into everything they could do as Vocaloids yet, knew there must be more. She didn't want them upset with her though so she just nodded, but they seemed to know she was just placating them and they stared back at her.

"Please, Haku-chin?" Luka said softly.

Haku looked away, finding it hard to meet her girlfriend's eye. "I'll be careful…" she replied noncommittally.

The discussion might not have ended there but the door to the garage banged open, making all of them jump. Miku and Haku let out little squeaks as Gumi came in with Teto right behind her. "We're ready to go!" The curvy green haired girl exclaimed, then blinked when she saw them all sitting around in their old clothes with the Maserati still jacked up. The two of them wore extremely nice dresses of silk and gold patterned cheongsams colored to make their eyes and hair stand out. "Whaaaaaaaaat?! You're not ready yet?! We're supposed to be there any minute!"

"Would you relax?" The stoic redhead said behind her. "We've got a few hours."

"Yeah but they need to wash and do their hair!" Gumi exclaimed, then suddenly blushed, her cheeks going scarlet as she averted her gaze. Teto caught her companion's expression and rolled her eyes, but her cheeks colored faintly as well.

"Would you let that go?" She sighed.

"What's the matter?" Luka asked the pair.

"Gumi-chin is just embarrassed because-"

Gumi squeaked and flailed at Teto. "No don't!"

"-we saw you three in the bathroom the other night." Teto finished. The redhead was trying very hard to act nonchalant about it but just mentioning it made her flush get deeper, but that was nothing compared to the completely scarlet hue the three top Vocaloids turned. Miku turned to point an accusing finger at Luka.

"You said they were out for the evening and no one would see us!"

Luka's jaw worked soundlessly a few times before she finally spluttered, "I…! I thought they were…!"

"We got back early… ohmygod I'm so sorry!" Gumi wrung her hands still not looking at therm.

"It's not your fault, it's Luka-chin's!" Miku was still pointing but it looked like a way to keep herself from covering her face in sheer mortification.

"Nono! We uhm…! Should have knocked…!?" Gumi burbled.

"On a public bathroom?" Teto said dryly.

"If it… makes you feel any better…" Haku said quietly, and something about the tone in her silvery voice drew every eye. "This just… makes us… even."

"Ev… even?!" Gumi squeaked.

"Haku-chin?" Luka asked.

Haku's cheeks were fire but she forced her voice to be steady, forced the mask of outer calm over herself. "The… first couple of weeks I was here…" she cleared her throat with a little cough. "I… well. It was…. The reverse of this situation..."

Teto blinked and her mouth made a little 'o' shape. " _You_ were the one who walked in on us that time in the tub."

"That was _you_?!" Gumi exclaimed, and when Haku nodded the short haired girl abruptly threw her head back and let out a laugh that rang of pure relief. "Oh thank God!" Everyone blinked at her in confusion she waved a hand in the air. "We never saw you, Haku-chan, just heard the noise. You ran really fast."

"We were worried because it could have been anyone, but if it was you at least now we have some peace of mind that we're not going to get in trouble or something." Teto explained.

"Well…" Luka said still blushing, her cheeks redder than Haku had ever seen therm, if not as scarlet as Miku's or her own. "I guess that really does make us even then."

"Does it?" Miku mumbled sounding like she were trying to force the words out through lips that were refusing to cooperate. "They both saw… all three of us but… only Haku-chin… saw them...,"

"Miku-chin!" Luka admonished.

"You three are really hot by the way." Teto said abruptly, having no issues with her tongue despite her red cheeks.

"Teto-chin!" Gumi exclaimed.

"What?" Teto asked. "They are." She put her hands to her modest chest. "I wish my chest was like Megu… I mean, like Luka's or Haku's." She was having the hardest time with dropping the formalities of any of them, but she was working at it.

"Me too…" Miku whispered.

"Your chest is fine." Gumi told Teto right atop Luka's reassuring Miku "You're adorable the way you are." Both of the more petite girls looked around at their curvier lovers with skeptical looks and a tense moment developed and suddenly Haku couldn't take the silence and broke it with the first thing that popped into her head.

"Do you think we're good looking aesthetically, Teto-chan, or in an attracted way?" Every eye turned to her and she shank in herself. "Sorry if that was too personal…" Silence answered her at first before Teto replied.

"Attractively." She looked up at Gumi who sighed and blushed harder but nodded her agreement.

"If… if it's alright… can I ask you some… questions about that?"

"Sure Haku-chan, you can ask us whatever." Gumi said wringing her hands. "But can we do it on the way to Hibikase?"

The owner of Luka's favorite venue had been so interested in the idea of introducing two brand new idols as well as having the prestige and honor of housing the very first live official showing off the new group "Vocaloids" that he'd arranged everything, seen to all the preparations, and their manager had hardly had to negotiate with him at all. Truth be told Hime had been beside herself when her favorite talent had gone silent on her for a few weeks but when they'd mentioned new members to their group she'd forgiven them, and Gumi had been practically counting the minutes down with excitement for getting to appear on stage. Teto had been less excited but still seemed to look forward to doing it with them, and the five of them were scheduled for the first ever appearance as a group that night. They'd spent their last week practicing the dances they were going to do, getting their steps in synch and their moves down, but as cyborgs and Vocaloids their very being was designed around dance and in truth a non-combat performance was a relatively simple matter in comparison to the training they had undergone in the Odoru no Budo.

It didn't take long for them to lower the Maserati back down to the floor then go and get cleaned up and changed into cheongsams that matched in design with the other two's, or at least not as long as Gumi was afraid it would take, and when they were all dressed and ready they all went back to the garage once more and walked up to the Grantourismo. Haku started to move toward the driver's door but felt a hand on her arm and turned to see Miku biting her lower lip. "Can I...?" She asked. "It's such a pretty car." Haku blinked then smiled and nodded to her girlfriend, and the adorable squee of delight and quick kiss she got in return was more than worth it. Everything about Hatsune Miku was cute. Gumi and Teto had already gotten into the back seat as Miku jumped into the driver's side and Haku moved around the car to the passenger's side. Luka was there and flashed one of her small private smiles and Haku leaned up to the slightly taller girl to give her a kiss too before slipping passed her to get into the back seat with their friends, and Luka blinked at her in surprise as she did. She'd been the last one in the front seat after all, and if they were taking turns it should be Haku in front if she wasn't driving.

"Haku-chin, are you-?" She started.

"Get iiiiiiiiiiiiin!" Miku called impatiently which made Haku giggle. Luka sighed and shook her head in mock annoyance as she sat down and shut her door.

"What am I going to do with you two?" Her crystalline voice had a note of playful amusement in it which only spoiled her feigned exasperation a little bit.

"Love us as and give us your whole heart and soul for eternity and put up with our return affections forever more until the end of time?" Miku batted her eyes in an overly cutesy way at the pink haired beauty.

Luka let out a huge sigh as though at an annoyingly large unreasonable request. "I suppose if I have to there's no helping it."

"And also buy us pocky whenever we want." Haku put in from that back seat.

Miku gasped and twisted around to nod in enthusiastic agreement with her. "Yeah that!"

Luka threw her hands up as though she were at her wits end, but her small smile was back. "Now you're going too far. Some things are just too much you know."

They all laughed and Miku turned back to the wheel and lifted her chipped security badge as though to insert it into a security ID reader, then stopped and blinked. "Oh right, this one doesn't have that." She put her hand down and glanced around. "Haku-chin, where's the-?" The twintailed girl cut off abruptly as the dash lit up and the engine roared to life. They all looked at her with wide eyes. "Did you…?" Her girlfriend started to ask. Haku smirked playfully, tilted her head, and the engine revved a couple of times.

"Haku-chin!" Luka sounded disapproving.

Haku giggled and made a soothing motion with her hand. "It's okay! It's nothing the rest of you couldn't do…" her smile widened and she couldn't stop herself from adding. "... _If you put your minds to it!_ " Groans and laughter erupted throughout the car. Luka threw a napkin at her.

"Did you seriously do that?" Gumi asked as Miku put the Maserati in gear and Luka hit the garage door button so they could pull out.

Haku shrugged. "Sure, I can interface with anything with a microchip, basically. We all have network capabilities though." She replied as she watched out the window while they turned out of the compound, and saw an inconspicuous all black van with heavily tinted windows across and down the street a little way. That was a little odd, she thought she'd seen the same van when they'd come home each day this week, but it had never been there before that she'd noticed. She took a brief snapshot with her mind. She didn't need to really, she could remember, but it was also fun as an experiment. She found she could record image files with what her eyes were seeing in the same way a device like a phone or camera could record through a lens.

"And it doesn't totes give you the wiggins?!" Gumi exclaimed.

"It was weird at first…" Haku allowed. "But I've always liked technology so it wasn't that foreign of a concept for me. Now I can look through computer files or even my own internal storage space as though I were browsing through a computer screen."

"Computer screen?" Teto blinked up at her. "How does that make sense? What computer screen?"

"Well, no actual monitor of course." Haku allowed. "But my brain interprets the technology I guess. To my vision, I can see it, almost as though I had a pair of those 3D VR goggles on. You guys see the datastreams too now, but I can see other things. Icons and videos and the like, whenever I think about wanting them, almost as though my vision has a 3D interface overlay I can summon when I want."

"That sounds crazy!" Gumi said. "And we could ALL do that if we wanted?! How can that even be normal?!"

"Well… it's not to others, but we're cyborgs, right? It just took a little getting used too. If we deny who we are to ourselves, how can we grow as people?"

"Are we people still?" Gumi asked.

"Of course we are." Teto said in annoyance.

"A different kind maybe." Luka said from the front seat. "But still people."

"Haku-chin is helping us see that." Miku added. "Whether we can even still be called human isn't exactly clear but… but we're still people."

"I taught you all how to connect to wireless datastreams." Haku said, looking at her friends beside her. "But when I first got here, you all taught me what it meant to have people you care about, and who care about you. That's what people do. They help each other."

"You've done far more than teach us datastreams, Haku-chan." Gumi said insistently.

"Maybe, but my point is, were still people. We have feelings and we can feel pain. We have likes and dislikes and wants and dreams."

"You sound oddly intense about this, Haku-chan." Gumi observed.

"I think she's talking to us as much as you." Luka said in a slightly dry tone.

"Why? I thought you were doing okay." Teto blinked at them.

"I…" Miku started to say but trailed off immediately, staring a little too intently at the road.

"It's just something we should all keep in mind." Luka covered for the girl beside her in the front seat, and for a little while silence descended on them all, each lost in her own thoughts until after awhile Teto broke the silence.

"Didn't you want to ask us something, Haku-chan?"

Haku blushed and shook her head, "No, it's okay, it might be a little too personal…"

Gumi snorted a giggle. "Haku-chan, we've seen each other… being intimate…" She blushed as well but shook her head. "And we're all some crazy new race of future robo people. I think we've blown passed the 'too personal' line a few exits back."

Teto rolled her eyes at Gumi but turned back to Haku. "It's okay, you can say whatever you want."

Haku bit her lower lip for a moment trying to think of how to phrase it delicately, not wanting to offend her friends. "I was just… curious about your… preferences?" They blinked at her and she blushed harder and waved a hand in the air. "You don't have to say if you don't want, I was just… curious after earlier, when you said… we…"

"Are you asking us out on a date, Haku-chan?" Teto asked mildly.

"What?!" Haku spluttered. "N-No I…!"

"Haku-chin." Luka said in a very neutral tone of voice. "If you're going to cheat you're supposed to do it when Miku-chin and I aren't right here."

"No that's not…!" Haku covered her face in embarrassment and heard Gumi laugh.

"Teto-chin, that was very nearly a joke.

"You said to work on my sense of humor."

"Yeah but look at poor Haku-chan, she's mortified."

"I'm sorry Haku-chan." Haku felt lips tap lightly and briefly against her cheek and looked up to see them all looking at her, even Miku glancing in the rearview mirror.

"I just… ah..." She muttered. "I've never been with… anyone besides… I mean I'm curious if you've always…" she trailed off, her words dying on her lips.

"You want to know if we're lesbians, and how we figured it out." The redhead said, ever the blunt stoic one, and all Haku could do was swallow and nod. "I am." Teto went on by way of answer. "I dated two guys a few years ago to make sure, but on some level I've always known. When my female friends in school were starting to notice boys for the first time I always seemed to be looking at them instead. My first kiss was with another girl too."

In spite of herself Haku was intrigued, leaning forward as though unconsciously afraid of missing something. When Teto fell silent Gumi took it up. "I consider myself bi." She said, causing Haku to blink.

"You're not a… a…?"

"I had a boyfriend before Teto-chin, and I was fine with it. I still notice guys in fact, I just happen to have ended up with a girl now." The casualness with which Gumi said those words took Haku aback. She didn't know what to say to this. "What about you three?"

"I don't… I don't know…" Haku stuttered trying to keep her flush from growing worse. "I was never… attracted… to anyone before… before Luka-chin… and Miku-chin… boys or girls either way…"

"It could be how they make you feel you know." Teto suggested curiously. "Gender night be so important to you as how they make you feel inside."

Haku's mouth fell open a bit. "That's… that's a real thing?"

"Yeah, it's called 'demisexual' and has nothing to do with gender. It just means you don't experience physical attraction until you're emotionally connected." Teto was explaining, but Haku already had a webpage up in her mind's eye, scanning over the dictionary definition.

"Emotional connection first, leads to physical attraction later…" she turned to look at Miku and Luka and tilted her head. "I mean… it makes sense… I'm definitely emotionally bonded now…"

Luka giggled and looked at the twintailed girl. "Hear that Miku-chin? As long as we keep her in love with us she'll always be attracted to us no matter what. Know what that means?"

"Ice cream binge?!" Miku shouted, and everyone laughed. When the giggles died down the pretty light blue haired girl added, "I don't think I care what a person has under their clothes as long as they're good inside."

"Does that mean Miku is demi too?" Gumi asked curiously.

"I don't think so." Luka said. "She definitely has had attractions before."

"L-Luka-chin!" Miku whined and Luka giggled again.

"According to this website," Haku said reading over a list of sexual identity definitions. "Pansexual would fit. It means all genders equally, no matter the import."

Miku shrugged, "I guess. I never felt a need to define it. As long as I have the two most gorgeous women in the world with me I don't really care." She said without thinking, then blushed.

"You're reading the internet in your head again aren't you." It wasn't a question and when Luka sighed Haku tilted her head.

"Why does it bother you so much? It's just something we can do."

"I don't know…" Luka murmured then shrugged. "Anyway, what does your list have to say about me?"

"Well, that depends on what you have to say about you." She told her girlfriend.

Luka thought about it a long time before shrugging in confusion. "I don't know, I've only ever been attracted to girls. Maybe I'm just a lesbian…?"

"You've never found a boy attractive?" Gumi asked. "Like not even on TV or in a magazine?"

"Well…" Luka said slowly. "Maybe…? But those are models, they're supposed to be good looking."

"I've never been attracted to male models." Teto told her. "It doesn't sound like pure lesbianism."

"Pure…" Luka blinked. "But I wouldn't want someone gruff or burly. I like… softness…? I guess…?" She looked frustrated but abruptly Haku found it on the page.

"Gynesexual. Attraction to femininity or feminine qualities, not necessarily females in specific."

"So if a guy was girly enough… you'd go for him." Gumi giggled like mad.

"Or a masculine enough woman would turn you off." Teto countered.

"It makes sense." Miku conjectured. "That guy you dated for a bit because your old manager pressured you into it never did anything for you."

"And now I'm with the two most beautifully feminine girls In the world." Luka said smiling at them.

"Well…" Gumi started to object as Haku and Miku's cheeks turned bright red again, then shook her head. "No, nevermind, that's fair. It's hard to get as soft and feminine as you three."

"I think you are." Teto told her, and it was Gumi's turn to turn scarlet in the cheeks.

The conversation stopped as Miku pulled the Maserati around the corner of the block and Hibikase came into view, and all five girls let out gasps of surprise and Gumi pointed. "Look how many people there are!"

"Woooooooooooooow there weren't that many last time we were here!" Miku said as she pulled around the building toward the back.

"Last time it was just my show." Luka said sounding unsurprised. "This time it's ours. Look." She pointed up at the poster boards advising that night's performers. Most of the posters were of Luka and Miku, which was to be expected being that they were famous the world over, but a fair number had Haku's own face on them, and there were even a few of Gumi and Teto. One and all they had blue lettering on flashy font that read "Vocaloids Live!" and many of the people in the crowd had various keepsakes they'd bought, most often glow sticks that they could switch between pink or blue or white or red or green, and a fair number had other items like shirts or hats or toys. Haku was amazed at the amount of paraphernalia that had popped up in the past few months since she had officially become an idol when she'd pitched her idea to their manager, but it seemed Hojoto Hime didn't wait around. Once the ball had gotten rolling it had quickly snowballed and now their images and advertising was everywhere.

Abruptly Miku pointed and giggled. "Look at that! That girl has a little octopus figurine of you as all pink hair!" She snicker snorted and the car swerved a bit with her mirth.

"TakoLuka?!" Gumi cried out and leaned forward to look.

"Tako… Luka…?" Luka asked sounding a little weirded out. "They made me… into an octopus?"

"Your hair IS really long and flowing…" Haku said in what she hoped was a conciliatory tone.

"That boy has a Miku plushie with a leek."

Miku made a face. "Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?! Leeks are smelly!" Luka just smirked at her.

"At least we know your fan base hasn't suffered too much." Haku said quietly, and both of her girlfriend's eyes grew rounder in surprise as they registered just how many people there were. Dozens upon dozens of all ages and genders lined up four or five abreast and trailing down the block and around the corner. So many people it was hard to believe they'd all fit into the sound theatre. Haku was at once elated that she hadn't actually ruined her girlfriend's career the way she'd worried she had but also nervous at the thought of so many people's eyes on her at once. She'd been on stage before, when Luka had surprised them at her last concert, but there hadn't been nearly this many people then, and that had only been for a few songs; this time she'd be up there for the entire concert. She swallowed hard and tried to focus on her girlfriends instead of her own worry. "If there's this many people here to see you… it can't be bad… right?"

There was silence for a long moment, then Luka's crystalline voice drifted back to her from the front seat. "Us."

"Ha?" She squeaked in surprise, and the pink haired beauty twisted around in her seat to look at Haku, big beautiful blue eyes meeting red with a smile.

"Not just me. They're here to see us." She said as Miku took the final turn around the building which brought them into the back parking lot where only staff and talent were allowed, cutting the crowd off from sight. There was a moment where she reached up as though for a key or her ID badge to kill the engine, but of course Haku had started the car without giving her the key so there was nothing for her to retrieve. She blinked back at her in confusion so Haku tilted her head slightly and let the engine die. It was a surreal moment, and they all got out of the car. The instant they did there was a satisfied exclamation from behind them and they turned to find their manager waiting for them.

"There's my girls! I'm so happy to see you all! You all look so lovely! I can't tell you how happy I am to see how this is turning out!" Hime practically gushed at them.

"Hello Hojoto-san." Miku said brightly and they all traded little bows all around.

"Hojoto-san, how big is the crowd? Are we the only performance tonight?" Luka wanted to know.

"Yes indeed, you're the only ones on tonight, and it's a complete sellout. There won't even be much standing space in the aisles!" Hime crowed with laughter, but the Vocaloids weren't amused, glancing at each other with concerned looks.

"You don't… Think they're just here because… they think we're lesbians… do you …?"

"We're not all lesbians." Gumi said.

"We look like it." Luka said, worry making her squint a little.

"We're not all lesbians, but we are all in lesbian relationships." Miku stamped her foot, and Luka hissed at her to be quiet but the damage was done. Their manager's face grew serious and she tapped her foot.

"So they weren't just wild baseless rumors on the internet." She said flatly, and all five girls reacted differently. Gumi and Teto averted their gazes, Haku tried to think of something to say, but Miku and especially Luka met their manager's stern gaze. They seemed to be deciding how they wanted to approach this but at last Luka spoke up.

"Remember back before the last concert you noticed I was… distracted?" She asked.

"How could I forget?" Hime said. "You looked like some man had caught your fancy."

Luka reached back for Haku's hand, and she let her idol draw her forward. "Yes, my fancy was caught, but not by a man. By Haku-chin." Hime's eyes only widened a little, apparently having read some of the articles online, but they widened even further when Luka drew Miku forward with her other hand as well. "And by Miku-chin." The three of them stood there holding hands as their manager looked them over a moment or two before glancing back at Gumi and Teto.

"Are… all five of you…?"

"Ehhhh?" Gumi's head whipped around and Luka shook her head.

"No, they're their own couple. We're not all five, we're three and two." Hime tapped at her lip with a finger in thought for so long the girls began to get nervous. Haku could practicality feel the anxiety coming from her girlfriends, separately yet distinctly in sync with each other's emotional states. Finally after a long few minutes of silence had gone by she just raised an eyebrow.

"Then I suggest you deal with it."

They all blinked at her, some confused some surprised. "That's it?" Miku asked. "You're not mad?'

"Hatsune dear, I may not look it now but I was quite a ravishing beauty in my youth." Hime said, quite correctly too Haku thought. She wasn't ugly by any means, or old either, but 'handsome' rather than 'beautiful' described her. "The worst thing I can see about this situation, at least from my side of it, is that you girls haven't exercised the best judgement about public displays of affection. But I do remember what it's like when you're young and the fires are fresh and burning hot." She waved a hand behind herself as though to indicate the crowd waiting on them. "And you're quite right to think many of them are here for that very reason. Oh, some won't care, but many will. Some may even be here specifically because of it. Others may be looking up to you as public role models for their own lifestyles or choices now too. From a business standpoint this hardly affects me in terms of bodies in seats, it just means i may have to market you differently depending on what you do about this."

"What do you mean?" Luka asked darkly, suddenly looking very unhappy. "What choice is there?"

"You can ignore it all." Their manager told them. "If you stop making any public displays at all and pretend it never happened, it will eventually blow over as rumors do, and no one will ever know."

"You mean hide it." Luka replied darkly. "Pretend we're not together."

Hime nodded and shrugged. "Or you can admit it, outright and publicly, and accept whatever consequences come of it."

"You sound like you don't care either way." Miku pointed out, her chime like voice seeming as unhappy with the situation as Luka's.

"I don't personally care." Hime told them. "There's so much rampant sexuality and drug use and debauchery in our industry that goes on behind the scenes that I'm just happy to have such wonderful girls in my employ. I know your hearts well enough, I've worked with you, seen your performances, and I don't think you're the self destructive types. Gay or straight, a client is a client. It's business and I can appreciate that. If you admit to it publicly, I'll just market you a little differently that's all." She gestured behind her once more with a little more emphatic of a hand wave this time. "Admit it or not as you like, but I highly encourage you to make the choice sooner rather than later. I can tell you from my own personal experience that it's the uncertainty of strung out rumors that most damages careers. The longer you wait to move one way or the other the worse it will be, but if you make a decision sooner and accept what comes of it your fanbase will shift and that will be that."

"Shift how?" Luka asked quietly but still darkly. "Grow? Decrease? Will this ruin me?"

"Ruin?" Their manager said thoughtfully. "I wouldn't say 'ruin'... but you might drop off the A list." When the pink haired beauty's face grew even darker Hime shrugged. "Megurine-san, trust me when I tell you in all my years as a talent manager, I have _never_ seen an idol as talented as you or Hatsune-san. Having you both on my books literally makes my career by itself, to say nothing of your friends here if they grow to match you in time. You are A list talent, but ability alone won't keep you at the top. Think hard about what you want to do, and do it, and accept what comes of it. All I can promise is that I won't drop you." A few moments of silence followed and when it became clear none of them had anything more to say to her Hime bowed slightly. "I need to go talk to venue's owner, I'll see you after your show is over." They nodded and she went inside, the massive bouncer on the back door opening it for her to admit her, then turning to eye them curiously.

"What…" Miku let out a shiver that had nothing to do with the cold of the winter's air. "What are we… going to do…?"

Luka's glower was withering but she didn't aim it at them. "They want a decision?" She said quietly. "Fine." She didn't elaborate and they didn't ask, but Haku had a feeling she knew where this was going, and it made her nervous. She could see the same anxiety in Miku's green eyes, but Luka was the strong one, the natural leader of the three of them. They had to let her be the one to make this decision… didn't they…?

They all nodded to the bouncer, Keitana Keija or Keiji, Haku remembered their names but couldn't tell the twins apart, and the massive man seemed to pick up on the mood and didn't say anything as he let them through the back door with little more than a nod of the head from them in thanks, though Gumi and Teto both eyed him with big round eyes. He was huge after all, the biggest man Haku had ever seen, though no part of him could be called fat, he was simply huge. They proceeded through the back areas with it's sparkling dark carpet to the dressing rooms and found Luka's at the end of the hall with her name on it, and they saw to their surprise that they all had dressing rooms with their names on them in the same hallway. They blinked at that and tilted their heads curiously, unsure if they should go in or not, but Luka didn't pause in her stride, flinging each of their doors open in her annoyance as she huffed by until she got to her door and entered. It seemed there were makeup artists all waiting for them, and the pink haired beauty addressed them as they all stuck their heads out the doors in confusion. "Once everyone is dressed and had their makeup done let me know please." She said, sternly but not unkindly.

"But we're… already dressed…?" Gumi asked in confusion and got a smirk back from Miku.

"What, you think these dresses are stage outfits?" The light blue twintailed girl giggled. "Oh Gumi-chan, you'll learn." She turned to follow Luka into the same dressing room, ignoring her own, and after a moment Haku followed as Gumi and Teto went into the room maked with the redhead's name. It was a little crowded in one dressing room with the three of them and three makeup artists, and for the next two hours they all sat in silence as their makeup and hair were done, their clothes fussed over, and their accessories picked out. Haku was in a kind of daze, worrying over what her girlfriend was going to do, ready to support her in whatever came of it for sure, but the uncertainty still unnerved her. She watched Luka out of the corner of her eye as they were readied for the show, but Luka had that mask of diamond hardness to her features that spoke of a depth of emotion inside being contained. She loved Luka and trusted her, but she still worried for her, for all of them.

The bustle only grew in intensity once they'd finished being prepared. Their cheongsams had been replaced with Christmasy stage outfits, not exactly with the whole red coat with white fur but dresses that seemed variations on the theme to appropriately fit each girl. Luka and Teto's were mostly red with only slashes of green and white trimming with green ribbons laced in their red hair, whereas Miku and Gumi's were the opposite, mostly green with some red design around the white edges and red ribbons. Haku's was the inverse from those even, mostly white with red patterns and green lining and both colors of ribbons, but they all matched. Even the dark bow holding Haku's cascading white hair back was swapped for a red and white one. Once they were all done they were ushered out of the dressing room areas to the back stage section of the biggest room in the building where they could hear the general murmur of the waiting crowd outside, who had all been admitted and seated while the girls were having their preparations seen to.

"I can't believe they all fit into this one room." Gumi said sounding nervous. "It sounds like there are hundreds of people out there!"

Haku was nervous too but she'd kept her outer calm serenity in place to hide it the whole time and she supposed that she must look composed to the newer performers even though her tummy felt like it was doing somersaults. Miku turned to look at them and giggled. "Welcome to being an idol. You'll get used to it, I promise. Being on stage is one off the best feelings in the world."

"Says the girl who looks like she was born to be in the spotlight." Luka said in a slightly playful tone, and Haku was just glad to see her loosening up a bit from her earlier bad mood, even if she could still the upset in her blue eyes.

Haku hesitated a moment not sure if she should say something to that our not but she didn't get the chance to either way as several stage hands came up to them and began quickly fitting ear pieces on them. It took a few minutes to get them clipped to their ears and tested, then the girls moved up to the curtains to be ready. Gumi and Teto were both looking a little nervous and Miku muted her mic and smiled at them. "It will be fine, don't worry. We've practiced this, and we're Vocaloids. Focus on the dance and you'll do fine." They nodded at her looking appreciative of the words if not convinced, and that twintailed girl switched her mic back on and they took their positions. They faced the curtain heads bowed with Miku standing in the middle, Luka a step to her left and behind, Gumi a step to get right and behind, Haku a step forward from Miku and two steps to the right, and Teto opposite that a step forward from Miku and two to the left. They formed a sort of loose uneven X centered on Miku and waited. The crowd seemed to have reached a fever pitch while waiting, but as the curtains began to part and the first few notes of ' _Kimagure Mercy_ ' boomed through the theatre that fervor changed to cheers as the girls began to each tap their right heal to the music for the opening notes. The lights were bright, hiding most of the crowd behind stage glare which helped Haku's nerves a little as she worked at keeping get outer serenity in place, but it wasn't as bad as the first time now that she knew what to expect, and as the energy from the crowd seemed to suffused her she felt adrenaline surge within her and she smiled. The stage was shaped like a giant music note and there were multicolored lights all up and down along the walls of the stage which pulsed in time to the music adding a delightful feel to the atmosphere, and they swung their arms up in time as they began to dance. The initial steps went smoothly and they struck their poses as Miku moved forward to deliver the opening lyrics. "Hora hora mata hajimatta…" (Look look there you go again…) They'd talked for awhile on who should get to do that. Miku and Luka had both wanted Haku to do it since she had organised them into a group, Haku herself had wanted Gumi or Teto to as new faces since they were making their debuts, but all three had admitted they were too nervous yet. In the end the three to two vote had won out that Miku or Luka should do it since they were so widely famous already. Miku had wanted Luka to do it since she'd had the more successful career thus far but Luka had insisted Miku do it to aid her comeback from retirement, and they'd almost come to an argument about it until they'd turned to Haku to make the decision between them. A three person couple was a hindrance in some ways but a blessing in others and it had turned out to be a good thing this time because when they agreed to both accept whatever choice she made her decision on Miku had ended the debate, and so the pretty light blue haired girl started in the middle tonight.

Once the first dance came to it's conclusion and they all posed to wait out the applause, they stood up beside each other and Luka stepped forward. If Miku was going to be the opening face to the Vocaloids then Luka had agreed to be the voice of their group. "Good evening everyone, we're so glad to see you all! I hope everyone is ready because we have a very special show tonight!" Her crystal voice rang over the room from her mic connected to the speaker system, and the crowd cheered so loudly they could feel the stage vibrating beneath their feet. "That's right, we have some very talented girls, and we have a couple of new faces! Tonight is the very first ever public showing of our newly formed idol group, the Vocaloids!" The crowd roared again and Haku wondered idly if Miku had ever told her father she'd used their name for the idol group. She didn't think so. "Our first new face is making her idol debut tonight as a Vocaloid! She's been training hard with us, so let's have a big round of applause to welcome to the stage Megpoid Gumi!"

Gumi's eyes widened and she froze for a moment but Miku gave the short haired girl a little push to get her going and she took a hurried step forward and waved at the crowd who were whistling and cheering thunderously for her, many waving glow sticks switched to green. "Huh... Hullo…! Everyone! I'm Megpoid Gumi! I'm so happy to be here!" She stuttered and flushed but she looked happy about it, and she stepped back into line again and Luka put her hands down to her sides and bent her knees in a cute short little dip.

"Our other idol has been training hard with us too! She's a little shy, but she's our very good friend Kasane Teto!"

The usually stoic redhead was blushing at the crowd stomping and cheering for her now and waving glow sticks now switched to red. She gave a little bow, her pointed conical twintails swaying just above her shoulders, and though her voice sounded composed she ran her words together super fast. "HelloeveryoneI'msohappytobeheretonightthankyouforcomingtoseeus!" Then she scurried back into line beside Gumi.

Luka regarded the redhead with a smirk and a finger placed over her lips as though considering her new group mates. She looked so radiant and natural on stage in the bright spotlights that Haku thought her heart might melt. "Well… they'll get used to it, hm?" Scattered laughter and applause rippled through the crowd and Luka turned to gesture at Haku with a flourish. "I hope everyone remembers the absolutely gorgeous and exotic idol I introduced you all to at my last show! The wonderful, beautiful, absolutely stunning Yowane Haku!"

The crowd seemed to explode in cheers and whistles and Haku had to strain not to let her surprise show as she stepped forward serenely to wave with one hand. Not only was the crowd aglow with white glow sticks now several were waving her picture or sporting bows in their hair like hers. She was even more surprised than she usually was at the reception she was receiving after only one show but she couldn't deny the warm feeling it gave her inside too. The adoration of the fans was infectious and felt wonderful, and even if she only did this for Miku and Luka it still made her as happy as much as nervous. On impulse she lifted her hand to her face with one finger extended up as though she were pointing skyward and gave a smile she hoped was smokey and mysterious. "There's plenty of evening left, ne?" They roared in agreement and as she started to walk back to the line Luka caught her sleeve and tilted her head to the side. Haku was confused, not entirely sure she knew what the other girl wanted, but she stayed beside her as the pink haired beauty lifted her hand once more.

"Of course you all already know who I'm about to introduce next. She's famous the world over and has just as many adoring fans as any idol. There is no cuter or more adorable girl alive, Hatsune Miku!"

Miku was absolutely all over the place rushing forward to wave at the crowd with both hands and smiling all around. Adorable and cute were definitely the words, not to mention energetic, and to Haku the twintailed girl looked just as natural on the stage as Luka did. "Hello everyone!" She cried, and the crowds roar was thunderous as the glow sticks all changed to a field of light blue and waved wildly. "Please show your support for our new group! We really want to do well for you!" They cheered back once more and Miku flashed her pretty smile all over. She too began to flounce back to they line but Luka caught her arm too and held her there. Miku blinked in surprise but held still and Luka looked up to the crowd.

"And of course, I'm Megurine Luka." She said simply in her crystalline voice. The sea of blue turned pink before them and the roar for her was as deafening as it had been for Miku. When it quieted a bit she spoke again, and with every eye on her she actually began to blush which shocked Haku. She was suddenly very nervous about whatever was about to happen. "I was going to wait to do this until the end of the show, but it seems to me that for anyone here who might be upset by it they might not want to wait that long to find out or they might feel, I dunno, duped into staying. So Incase any of you doesn't like what I'm about to reveal-" She cut off abruptly as Haku reached up and switched her mic off with a small audio feedback pulse in the speakers, and when she let out a surprised "Haku-chin, what-?" Haku reached over to switch Miku's off too, then her own. "What are you doing?" The blue eyed girl asked in surprise. Not able to be heard beyond the three of them caused the crowd to begin murmuring in confusion, but Haku ignored them for the moment.

"You can't do this, Luka-chin." She said sternly, her silvery voice firm with resolve.

Miku blinked at them. "Do what?"

"Tell the world… about us." Haku said, and Miku's mouth made a big 'O" shape in surprise as Luka shook her head.

"I hate the rumors, and I hate feeling backed into a corner every time this comes up in public. It's ridiculous and I don't want to hide anymore. I love you both, I don't care who knows it."

"I know it's hard." Haku said sympathetically, "I do, but… we can't, not now." She gestured at the crowd. "Wrong time, wrong place. We told Hojoto-san, and our closest friends and family know, that's fine for now, isn't it?"

Luka's face seemed to darken for a moment. "I think I'd rather be hated for the truth than loved for a lie."

"Then don't say anything at all." Haku's voice began to sound pleading. The crowd's muttering was beginning to get louder. "Acceptance is a hard thing in our part of the world, and I don't want to see you throw your career away! Please! We can talk about what to do about this later!"

The three of them exchanged looks, Miku's bewildered, Luka's stern, Haku's pleading, then finally Luka nodded. "Alright… but we will talk about it later." Haku sighed and sagged in relief as the pink haired idol switched her mic back on and looked out at the crowd. She'd already started, so she had to say something now. After a brief pause she concluded, "I'm afraid I'm going to have to cancel the autograph signing event next weekend, I'm sorry to everyone who was looking forward to going. To make up for it though, we'll have a small signing tonight, here at Hibikase, after the show, so I hope that makes it up to everyone."

Miku leaned over to Haku and narrowed her eyes, "We had a signing event next weekend?"

Haku shook her head. "I didn't hear about anything like that, I think she's covering…"

The crowd cheered, some seeming excited by the prospect of autographs, which was something Luka rarely did. She'd had to say something after the way she started though, so she'd fabricated a disappointing event then covered that. It was a cover on top of a cover, and Haku felt bad for making her lie like that, but… she couldn't stand the idea of the alternative. She and Miku switched their mics back on too and they all took their places in line once more. ' _Number 9_ ' was a fast song, so maybe that helped to keep second thoughts about their flushes of embarrassment or annoyance at bay if anyone was paying that close of attention. The rest of the songs were too for that matter, and they went through a number of Haku's personal favorites as they danced on. She loved the fast ones; _Ikkitousen, Pomp and Circumstance" Cell Phone Girl, Masked Bitch, KoshiTanTan_ , songs where she could really cut loose and have fun with them. She could feel her sonic energies building within her just from that sheer act of putting her heart into dancing, and what's more was she could feel the other Vocaloid's energies spiking too. The last time she'd been on stage with Miku and Luka had marked their first Resonance together and the urge to reach out for it again was strong, but she resisted it. This time they had Gumi and Teto with them, and a public venue surrounded by hundreds of people was definitely not the right place to risk a Counter Resonance with such a power difference and they all knew it. So each girl kept her sonic energies to herself and they danced together as fluidly and gracefully as they'd been practicing for. Song after song went by with the stage lights pulsing merrily and the crowd beating time with stamped feet and waving of glow sticks set to various colors and Haku let herself be carried away by their music, by their performance together, focusing on their dance steps as they went from one song to the next. Gumi and Teto seemed to be loosening up too, singing a little louder and stepping a more lively than they had at first. The show seemed to go on forever but all of the sudden Luka was calling to the crowd over the speakers again, her crystalline voice still sounding singsong. "We're the Vocaloids! We're grateful for you all! Thank you so much for coming!"

"Thank you everyone!" Miku began bounding about the stage again, waving with both hands. "Be safe! We'll see you next time!"

"Thank you all!" Gumi and Teto said together, waving.

Once the curtains had fallen cutting them off from view of the crowd the five girls turned to each other, giggling and babbling as the euphoria of the performance took hold of them. It wasn't long before their manager made her appearance and she crossed her arms and smirked at them. "I see you've made your decision." Hime said. "For a moment there I thought you might actually do it."

Luka nodded slowly to their manager, her slightly flushed cheeks betraying her calm determination only a little. "Haku-chin stopped me, or I would have." She replied. "I don't want to hide, but she's right. Wrong place, wrong time"

Their manager shrug shrugged without uncrossing her arms. "Well it may be for the best."

Haku was sure her girlfriend would be upset or offended but Luka just smiled at the older woman. "Like I said, I won't hide. If I did, it would be like denying my feelings, or being ashamed of them, and I'm neither. I love my girlfriends, and I'd rather be hated for the truth than loved for a falsehood. So in the future, I plan to reveal it, I'm just not sure how yet, and if anyone asks me directly about it, I won't lie." Haku was so moved by the sentiment that she reached out to take one of Luka's hand and give it a squeeze, wanting to show the pink haired beauty her support. She got a squeeze back, and Miku copied her on the other side. Unlike Haku though the green eyed girl wasn't content to remain silent.

"I love performing." Her twintails swayed as she shook her head a bit. "I love dancing, I love singing, I love spreading that joy to others. But I don't think you can do that if you're not giving it your all, and I don't think you can give your all if you're not true to yourself. I don't think you can spread those types of feelings if you're not feeling them yourself. Luka-chin is right, we can't hide, even if this ruins us as a group in the end."

Hime regarded her charges for a long few moments before a smile finally quirked her lips again, "There's the determination I love in you girls. Look I don't care personally, I said before I'm willing to continue representing you either way. Just be careful about how you present yourselves okay?" They all nodded at her in response, and she smiled wider at them. "That being said, the reality is I may be able to find ways to help you with that. I can't promise anything, but there have been instances of famous people coming out and their careers not ending over it. It's all in the presentation. So I'll do what I can behind the scenes, and in the meantime I suppose after all the rumors flying around recently everyone who came to this show probably expected it, or were at least not bothered by it. That will help too." Their manager let out a little laugh at the stunned look on their faces. "Don't worry too much about it girls, your careers aren't over yet." Haku felt her chest swell with happiness and relief at that, and she traded smiles with the others. She had been so worried for her girlfriends, so worried she'd accidentally ruined their careers, that this came as a huge relief to her. What surprised her though was the realization that she felt just as relieved for herself. She'd only become an idol to share it with Miku and Luka, but now that she was here and secure in it, she now found that she wanted it for herself too. _Everything is going to be alright_ , she thought to herself, squeezing both of her girlfriend's hands again and getting answering squeezes in return. It was all okay now.


	27. Vocaloid Academy Chapter 27

"You've really been making a lot of changes to Miku and Luka, Haku dear." Doctor Hatsune said with a tentative sounding tone of voice as she scrolled down the screen of the terminal hooked up to Luka. They were in the basement's sublevel four of the Vocaloid Compound where all of the lab equipment was. Haku kept splitting her attention between her two girlfriends each stretched out on tables staring up at the ceiling with vacant looks in their green and blue eyes, and the screens Miku's parents were scrolling through as they examined the code displayed there of the two. "You've easily increased the number of lines by half again what used to be there, and I'm not entirely sure all of it is necessary…"

"I don't think all of it is." The Director said as he scrolled through Miku's programming on the other table's terminal. "It looks almost as though you've simply dumped copies of your own code into theirs. That could cause complications, since your hardware is different from theirs." He stopped scrolling down the screen and pointed at the screen to a particular line of code. "Like here, these are your GUI interface protocols aren't they? They don't interface the same way you do, so why would you add this?"

"It's not exactly the same." Haku told them as she looked through the lines Motsu was indicating. "I promise you I look over everything carefully before I make any changes and adjust it to work for their specific hardware, and since you allowed me access to my own lab room I backup their code before each and every change so they can be rolled back if necessary. As to this-" She pointed at the protocols he was indicating. "This is so they can more efficiently connect with WiFi and Bluetooth networks. They don't have a custom built wireless adapter like me, but this will drastically speed up the bandwidth they can get when they do access other networks."

"They weren't designed with that sort of functionality in mind, standard access was all we intended them to have." Came his deep bass reply.

"Well they can't have their hardware upgraded now without major surgery right? What if they end up needing more capacity some day? Doesn't it make sense to optimize what they have until upgrades become possible?" Haku countered, and after a long moment or two the director nodded his head and she allowed herself an internal sigh of relief. The entire afternoon had been like this, having to convince the doctors that her code changes and programming alterations were good. She supposed they had a right to be overly protective, after all they'd spent years of their lives and careers dedicated to developing the Vocaloids, and Miku was their daughter on top of it. They'd had to open their family to not one but two girlfriends of their only child, and if that wasn't hard enough they'd had to accept Haku taking partial control away from them. She could only imagine the emotional difficulties in all of that, and she couldn't have even began to think how she might have reacted had it been her in their position. However… she had to work to keep the frustration off her face. It had been a trial in and of itself just convincing the other Vocaloids to let her work on their programming. They had both come a long way in accepting what they were, in accepting that they are were cyborgs, but it still bothered them both in some ways. It wasn't that they didn't trust her; trust had nothing to do with it. They just had a hard time wanting to acknowledge that there was a need for it at all, let alone have it done. Haku couldn't blame them either, The prospect of having a command word that could render you completely helpless was a terrifying prospect, one no one should have to deal with. Buuuuuuuuuut… the two gorgeous Vocaloids laying on the tables were her girlfriends, the loves of her life, the most important people in the world to her. No matter what happened, come hell or high water, she would do absolutely everything she could to keep them safe, and because of the very nature of what they were, that process had to start in the lab, in their heads. She had to keep them all cooperating with her. Maybe she could help them acclimate to what they were somehow… that was an interesting thought. She'd have to ponder that.

"What about this here, Haku dear?" Mira asked pointing at a bit of code on the screen above Luka's head. "It looks like you've completely altered the parameters in which they can use their abilities. Why would you do that?'

It was an effort for Haku to keep her outer mask of calm in place, and she closed her eyes for a moment to make sure she kept her composure hoping they interpreted it as her taking a moment to think. Which was preposterous, now that she thought about it, since the Vocaloid Chip allowed her brain to process information hundreds of times faster than a normal human brain, it wasn't like she needed such a moment. "Because it seemed to me that restricting our abilities could endanger the public or ourselves in certain circumstances."

"What circumstances?" The director wanted to know.

"Well, for example, in a public setting, we couldn't before if the area was too open or populated." She replied carefully.

"Of course. To prevent the risk of exposure." He replied.

"Do you think a souldrinker would follow the same restrictions?" She asked quietly, giving him a moment's pause. "Should we let a person die when we could prevent it?"

"Such as the way you did with the child in the mall?" He asked in an iron tone of voice, very clearly still unhappy about that incident. The steel core all Hatsunes had in them was ever ready to show itself in Miku's father and Haku was glad she'd made a habit of keeping her serenity in check. "Clearly your parents didn't program you with similar restrictions."

"They had their own kinds of protocols in place but I altered those too." She replied keeping her silvery voice carefully neutral in tone. "I do not regret what I did, I saved a child's life. I don't want to sound like a broken record, but you have to trust our judgement, trust us to act in the best way we can in any given circumstance."

"And if that circumstance is a judgement call between risk and exposure?" His deep bass voice came out flatly. "Trust then as well?"

"Yes." Was all Haku could say. She understood his difficulties in this. Even if she didn't agree with the problems he saw, she understood. "We'll always do our best."

He narrowed his eyes and seemed to be thinking on how he wanted to answer that, but his wife stepped in to offer a suggestion, "Maybe we should place such trust in you girls to do what's best-" The director made a sound in his throat like he was going to disagree but then quieted and she continued, "-and maybe it would be easier to do if we all sat down together ahead of time and agreed on some… guidelines?"

After a long slow moment the director nodded his head. "Perhaps that would be wise."

Haku allowed herself another internal sigh of relief. She had no doubts that those guidelines would be much debated over, but it was a step in the right direction. She turned around to look at her girlfriends lying stretched on their exam tables, and though looking at their vacant glassy eyed gazes always made her shiver uncomfortably she couldn't keep her eyes away. In spite of herself she took a step forward and reached a hand out to Luka's head, running it tenderly over the gorgeous Vocaloid's pink locks above her brow, then after a moment she turned and did the same with Miku's light blue strands. Love was such a blissful feeling, but at times it surged up within her so hard it made her chest hurt. She didn't understand how an emotion could cause a physical pain, but it did. She hated seeing them like this, so vacant, so vulnerable... Abruptly she couldn't stand it anymore right then and without looking up to the doctors she said quietly, "Can we… call it a day, please?"

They both cast looks in her direction, Mira's one of sympathy, Motsu's stony as always but perhaps with a degree of understanding. They'd been at this for hours, and with a nod Doctor Hatsune said, "Sure, Haku dear." While the Hatsunes took a minute to save what they had on their terminals she turned her back so they wouldn't see her wiping at the tears suddenly leaking silently down her cheeks. It seemed she wasn't as fully adjusted to this entire ordeal as she'd thought she was. Being a cyborg was a lot of fun in a lot of ways, but at it's core… it was hard to squash that niggling little voice deep inside her that kept telling her she wasn't human anymore, that kept telling her she was a freak now. "We'll upload our changes to the network so you can access it from the room we're letting you use next time you update." The doctor said, and Haku nodded at the wall and made an agreeable sound she hoped wasn't too touched by her silent sorrow. When they were done they moved around the tables and unhooked the other Vocaloids, turning their heads to the side gently to pull the jacks out of the ports in the base of their skulls and replace the concealing epidermal plugs to hide them, then while they wound the wires back up Haku turned to one of the instrument trays and began wheeling it over between the two tables.

"Resume normal operating function." Haku said in a commanding tone as she slid the tray into place between the two girls. Both of the beautiful Vocaloids blinked several times in rapid succession as their usual selves took back over and Miku let out a little squeaking hiccup which she hastily covered her mouth with a hand to try to hide. Luka put the back edge of her own hand to her lips as well, but it wasn't a hiccup that came to her. Haku pulled her snowy white cascading ponytail forward, kept in place by an all black bow (a replacement she'd bought for her old favorite one ruined in a rainstorm what almost felt like a year ago now), and held it against her shoulder so it wouldn't fall all over the place as she leaned over the table to press her lips tenderly to Luka's forehead. The pink haired beauty blinked up at her and smiled behind her hand before Haku turned around to do the same to Miku, but the twintailed girl noticed her movement and looked up at the last moment and her lips ended up pressed in a funny way against the bridge of Miku's nose. They blinked at each other and both let out a giggle before Haku stepped back so the other two could sit up on their tables. "Good morning." She told them, and they blinked at her little joke.

"Haku-chin, it's-" Miku started, but Haku shook her head and gestured at the tray.

"Breakfast." She teased with a smile, even though the pretty light blue haired girl was quite right, it was passed lunch time.

Blue and green eyes each shifted to the tray where Haku had set out a cream soda for Luka and a melon soda for Miku as well as a little dish of truffles. Their eyes widened a bit in surprise and they smiled as they both reached out, Miku lifting the can to sip at her favorite soda and Luka popping one of the sweets into her mouth. After she'd chewed and swallowed it she smiled at Haku happily. "You're so thoughtful, Haku-chin. What's this for?"

Haku gave her a little shrug back. "I just noticed that whenever your command interfaces are released back to normal function that Luka-chin usually mumbles something about craving her favorite chocolates and Miku always hiccups." Luka blinked and giggled and Miku blushed prettily as she sipped at her drink. "It's okay Miku-chin, it's adorable. I just thought, I dunno, this might help ease the severity of… this whole deal." Their smiles of love and gratitude were more than enough thanks for her and she felt herself blush slightly just at the silent praise. Luka picked up a truffle and leaned over playfully and put it to Haku's lips. She blushed a little more and accepted it, taking it with her tongue and chewing. It was yummy of course, but she only took it because of how much she enjoyed her girlfriend feeding her. A throat clearing behind them brought all their heads around with blushes as Miku's parents considered them with flat looks.

"You're old enough to do as you please, but just because we've given our blessing doesn't mean you don't have to show some discretion." Motsu said sternly as his wife nodded.

"Sorry daddy." Miku said sheepishly, blushing more even though she hadn't really done anything this time.

"Sorry dad." Luka and Haku echoed together after exchanging a glance, some inexplicable feeling compelling them to speak at the same time. Haku was sorry, even though she didn't regret it, but she thought it might lighten the mood, and it seemed to have the desired effect as both husband and wife blinked in startelement before Mira put a hand over her mouth to stifle a laugh, and though Motsu put a balled fist to his face to cough into it gruffly she thought she could see the corners of his lips quivering as though fighting a smile.

"I think you girls had best run along now." Mira said gently. "We'll have that talk later."

Miku blinked and turned to Haku. "What talk?" But Haku just took one each of her girlfriend's hands in either of hers and gently urged them off the tables, and after a moment they followed her, taking only a moment to snag their sodas and the truffles then trailing behind as they made their way out into the hallway and toward the elevator. "What talk?" Miku asked again when they were out of earshot.

"They just want to talk about guidelines of how to act as Vocaloids." Haku replied.

Luka frowned at that. "I thought we already had those programmed into us."

"We did." Haku replied, hitting the elevator's call button as they drew up to it. "I changed it." Both of the other girl's blinked at her and Miku even fidgeted a little uncomfortably, their hesitance taking Haku aback a bit. "Why? What's wrong with that?"

"Not… wrong exactly…" Miku muttered as the elevator dinged open and they stepped in.

"Just… concerning." Luka added and reached for the floor button. Before her finger could reach it though Miku let out a little girly squeak and dove for it, pushing the button and giggling.

"Sorry, I wanted to push it." She said, and Luka gave a shrug and playfully feigned a sigh of exasperation as they started their ascent.

"Concerning how?" Haku wanted to know.

"Well…" Luka said carefully. "I mean, don't you wonder if you might be… maybe taking too many liberties?"

Haku blinked in confusion. "Liberties? What liberties?" The elevator stopped to let them out and they began making their way through the main level.

"In programming us." Luka said, a distasteful tone in her crystalline voice. "I mean, all these changes to us… I'm starting to feel like…" she trailed off not sure how to put it.

"Like a science project." Miku chimed in, her tone just a hair shy of bitterness.

Abruptly Haku stopped waking and the other two took a full two more steps before they turned around from so sudden a halt. " Haku-chin-?" Luka started, but she got no further.

"Is that really what you think I'm doing?" Haku's silvery voice was frosty as she felt a frigid anger well up inside her. She didn't raise her voice though; if anything she got quieter, growing chilly rather than hot with her anger. "That I'm just toying with you?"

Her sudden anger shocked them, their eyes going wide and their hands coming up to wave in an objecting way. "What? No!" Miku said hurriedly. "Nono! We're just worried!"

"Worried about what?" Haku asked frostily, folding her hands over her tummy beneath her curvy chest. "What exactly do you think I'm doing to you that is scaring you?"

"'Scare' is too strong a word." Luka said gently, her tone pitched in a way that was meant to be soothing. "We just worry about it, about you."

"How?" Haku asked again, not feeling like she wanted to indulge this game of evasiveness. "Exactly how?"

"You're not a scientist like my parents." Miku was wringing her hands now, her green eyes darting all over. "You're phenomenal with computers, but… I mean how do we...how do we know… what you're doing to us…?"

She stared at the other two incredulously. "How do you…?" Haku echoed before turning her head to stare at the wall. "Well for one thing your parents are looking over everything I do, Incase you feel my work needs supervision and approval." She spit the last few words out despite her low cold tone. "And besides, everything I've done, every change I've made, has been to grant us more freedom, more humanity, more independence. I thought you trusted me to look after us."

"We do!" Miku squeaked sounding on the verge of tears. She set her soda down on the floor and slid slowly up to Haku and put a hand on her folded arm, trying to offer physical comfort. "That's not the issue!"

"It's not a matter of trust, Haku-chin, as you yourself have said." Luka moved to put her drink and chocolates down as well then stepped up to put a hand on her other arm. They wanted her to open up to them, but stubbornly she squeezed herself around the middle even more tightly as Luka went on. "We have absolute and complete trust in you. It's you we're worried about." Haku didn't say anything to that so the pink haired beauty went on. "Juon-san thought she could turn around and play creator, and Miku-chin's parents are still working to undo the damage the Kaganines have suffered. We don't want unforeseen problems to come from this, on our end or yours."

For a long few minutes Haku let her anger roll through her as she silently fumed, but then she turned her gaze back to my theirs, red eyes meeting first worried green then commiserating blue. Even in the midst of her anger she couldn't help but notice how beautiful they were, and it served to melt the ice that was her frosty upset. It just wasn't fair how pretty they were… that aside though, she supposed she could see things from their point of view. Neither of them were exactly computer experts, and neither knew anything about programming, so wherever they were switched off, trust in her or not, they had no way of knowing what was going to be done to them or how it would affect them when they woke up. She sighed. "How about a compromise?" They perked up a bit as her attitude seemed to melt and nodded eagerly. "What if I discussed every idea or change I was planning to make with you both ahead of time? Explained the differences and what it would do and the like, that way you could better understand what was going on and agree to it, so you had a say in what was being done?"

"That would be great!" Miku bubbled enthusiastically. "It would make me feel so much better!"

"And?" Luka prompted. "The other side of the compromise?"

Haku tilted her head at them. "You both let me teach you how to code."

Luka's eyes widened in surprise and Miku's enthusiasm turned to revulsion. "Eeeeeeeeehhhhhhh?" The twintailed girl cried out. "But coding is haaaaaaaaaaard!"

"If you learned how, or at least the basics, then you could look over what I do or even help me think about how to do it and then it would be less like me dictating changes to you and more like we were working on improving ourselves together." Haku told them.

"Can't I just download a programming book so I know how or something?" Miku asked plaintively.

"You could do that," Haku replied, "But that wouldn't make you able to code. Programming is one of those things that having raw knowledge about doesn't make you good at it. You have to understand it and really work on conceptualizing it or else your code won't be efficient or even functional all the time."

"But why bother when we have you and my parents?' Miku complained.

Haku gave a small shrug. "You might not always. Or you might be in a situation some day when knowing it yourself is helpful. I'm not saying you have to Miku-chin, if you really don't want to. I just thought it might help us all feel better."

"Why this insistence on it Haku-chin?" Luka spoke up. "You never mentioned it before, so why now?' The pink haired beauty didn't outright day she didn't want to, but that twist to her lips she got when they were discussing technology was suddenly there. Whatever had been bothering her about all of this was suddenly back.

"Because I think that as Vocaloids, as cyborgs, we're capable of more than just what Miku-chin's patents designed us for." She answered carefully, not wanting to bother Luka any more than she had.

"Like what?" Both of the other two girls wanted to know.

Haku shrugged one shoulder, keeping the gesture small enough that she didn't shake off the hands on her still crossed arms. "I don't know for sure yet, but there's one indisputable fact that permeates the world. There has never been any kind of technology, machine, idea, or creation of any kind that one man has invented for one purpose that another man hasn't tried to put to a different use, or change to suit his own ends." She paused for a minute to let that sink in, watching the other girls faces as they mulled that over in their minds. "Whatever the use we were originally designed for, we can improve on it, update it, make it our own. We can surpass our original limitations and become what we want, not what someone else thought we should be." She hadn't meant to make it into an impassioned plea, but to her ears at least it sounded like one. Fortunately however her girlfriends seemed to take it the way she'd hoped they would.

"That… sounds really wonderful when you put it like that, Haku-chin." Luka murmured, her blue eyes wide with thought. "It sounds almost… artistic. A really romantic notion."

"Like no matter what we've been turned into, we can decide for ourselves who we are and what we become." Miku said quietly, almost whispering. Abruptly her eyes welled up, the idea of this touching the shorter girl so much after how hard the discovery of their creation had hit her apparent in her eyes as she looked up to her white haired love. "Do you… do you really mean it, Haku-chin? Really and truly?"

The emotion in the pretty light blue haired girl's voice was too much and melted whatever ice was left of Haku's cold anger and she opened her arms to the other girl, and Miku immediately dove in for a hug. She wrapped her arms around the petite girls shoulders and squeezed Miku to her and said in a soft voice, "Yes, yes I do. It may be hard to deal with, sometimes even scary, but together we can do this. We can be who and what we want." She felt Miku shiver against her as emotion racked her, and then she felt protective arms encircling both of them and looked up to see Luka's smiling face.

"It seems that saying about there being beauty in everything if you look hard enough is true after all." Her eyes shone damply but no tears fell and her crystal voice was steady. "I've been having a hard time seeing the art in all of this cold technology, but… seeing through your eyes, the way you just showed it to us Haku-chin… I think I can see it now."

That sparked a notion in her mind. See in through her eyes… Haku mulled that one over. She'd taught them how to connect to wireless networks, but that was it. They hadn't actually seen what they could really do with that yet. Maybe there was a way… "Then you'll let me teach you?" Haku asked, and they nodded.

"We'll all teach, and we'll all learn." Luka said, and when Haku tilted her head curiously she added, "You wanted us to teach you to play an instrument, remember?'

Haku smiled and nodded and they all just sort of stood there for a few moments clinging to each other with their emotions surging through them, each feeling like the others were their rock in a storm. After awhile Haku felt herself begin to calm down, and her attention shifted from emotional considerations to physical ones as she began to notice her girlfriends pressed against her. They were so soft, their skin so smooth, and they smelled so good. There was the scent of their floral soaps like usual but underneath it was the smell of each girl herself that so intoxicated Haku, making it hard for her to think sometimes. She began to grow flushed as she felt a familiar heat rising within her, and apparently she wasn't the only one feeling it because the other two began to fidget in her arms.

"Hey…" Miku was the first to break the silence, her chime like voice thick with desire. "Why don't we… go-"

"There you guys are!" Came a bubbling voice from down the hall, interrupting Miku's suggestion and making all three of them jump in surprise. Miku and Haku jumped anyway, Luka just tensed up as they all turned to find Gumi and Teto coming up the corridor towards them. It really wasn't fair, Haku thought to herself. She wished she could be as collected and confident as Luka always seemed to be. "We've been looking everywhere for you!"

"Not everywhere." Teto said folding one hand over the other and holding them before herself. "We didn't look in the boy's dorm, out in the yard yet, or the kitchen, or-"

"WHY would they be in the boy's dorms?" Gumi asked in an exasperated tone of voice.

The stoic redhead shrugged. "I didn't say they would be, just that we hadn't looked there, so we haven't looked 'everywhere' yet."

Gumi rolled her eyes dramatically and heaved a long suffering sigh before turning back to the three she had so cluelessly interrupted. "Did you hear about our tests last night?!" She asked excitedly, and when they all shook their heads and threw as arm into the air victoriously. "One hundred twenty seven!"

Miku perked up and clapped her hands in delight for their short haired friend. "One twenty seven times normal human perception?! Way to go Gumi-chan! That's very nearly B rank!"

Gumi brushed at her green locks with a cool pose sort of gesture. "Teto-chin only made one twenty six."

Luka smirked at them in amusement. "Miku-chin and I have the same sort of rivalry."

Teto gave a small shrug and looked around at the other girls. "It's a one sided rivalry. I don't really care as long as I do my best for myself."

Gumi turned a withering look on her companion. "Well it helps me to measure myself against you."

The redhead gave another shrug, this one bigger than the last. "It's not like it matters, did you hear about their scores?" She tilted her head at the other three, conical red points swaying. Gumi blinked blankly and Teto gestured at them. "Luka-chan hit one fifty four times and Miku-chan one fifty five."

The green headed girl's eyes widened and she turned her gaze to stare at them in awe. "Woooooooooooow! All that training paid off! You're all S plus now! And Miku-chan is strongest now?!"

Miku blushed a bit. "Luka-chin and I go back and forth…"

"Wait! What's Haku-chin at?!"

"One fifty three." Luka said when Haku didn't speak up for herself. "She didn't grow much, she was trapped in a basement after all."

"Awwwwwww poor Haku-chan!" Gumi moaned.

Haku rubbed at one arm with the other hand uncomfortably. "It's fine, really. Someone has to be strongest, and I'd rather it wasn't me anyway." She told them.

"It's only by a couple of points at any rate." Teto put in.

"Those few points matter." Gumi insisted.

"It matters, but what's important is that we all do our best." Luka told them, and they nodded as she effectively put an end to their debate. "I'm so glad that you're both doing so well though." She added, and they perked up. "You've both made great strides and it shows. You're both strong enough to start hunting souldrinkers now. We'll have to start taking you out so you can get experience in the field."

"Oooooooooooohhh that's a great thought, but also kinda scary." Gumi said, her bubbly tones tempered by the sober task.

"You'll do fine." Miku said with a bright smile. "You did well in the fight to get Haku-chin back after all. You're definitely ready for field work." They positively beamed at her and Gumi bent to lift Miku's hand.

"I'm soooooooooo happy to hear you say that! Thank you!" She gave a little bounce in place. "Hey! Let's go celebrate! Get some frozen yogurt or something?!" Haku watched Miku and Luka's faces twist with conflicting emotions and knew how they were feeling. All three of them were feeling the need for some… private time together, but… well… it was Gumi and Teto…

"Sure, that sounds great." Miku said then giggled when Gumi let out a cheer. Teto rolled her eyes. They retrieved their sodas and truffles so they could leave them in the little cafeteria on the way out and all followed as the green haired girl spun around, took the redhead by the hand, and headed for the entry hall. Haku kind of wanted to change clothes, feeling like the plain black pants and white shirt she'd been wearing just around the Compound was a little plain compared with Luka's black and gold trimmed outfit and Miku's grey blouse and black skirt trimmed with teal ruffles but she supposed it wouldn't be a big deal.

As they left out the front entry hall and turned down the street Haku saw the same black van with tinted windows that had been there since she'd gotten back from her parent's lab. She'd noticed it a couple of times now including the other week when they'd gone to their show. She'd taken a snapshot with her internal systems to compare with, but she didn't need it, not with her memory. The license plate was the same, the make and model the same, and it hadn't moved much beyond being parked in a different spot on the street every now and then. She didn't stare at it too much, there wasn't a lot to see, but she thought maybe she should look into it. She turned her gaze back around to find Gumi and Miku leading the way talking a thousand miles an hour about the shop they were going to and what kinds of things they had there, and Luka and Teto were following a step behind shaking their heads at their respective girlfriends' bubbliness. Haku was content to remain forgotten for the moment as she trailed behind and let her eyes turn up to the sky. There were datastreams aplenty flying through the air above, and it was as simple as a thought now too focus on one to bring it down to her. She didn't physically reach for it but she imagined doing so, let the connection form in her head, and an instant later her mind's eye began loading wireless access that only she could see as floating 3D icons and images before her.

She'd never tried to access any sort of government website before aside from the first time she'd hacked the DMV for her Grantourismo files, but she thought that had just been a simple record alteration and this would be a deeper invasion into the DMV. It was probably the best place to start looking up the though van. The main web page came up before her eyes and before she'd taken more than a step she'd already scanned it for vehicle registries and found nothing. She hadn't honestly expected to, such information was private avid protected. She'd have to delve deeper… another step later and her code breaking software began to run through her mind, looking to her 3D vision like a block of greenish data encryption rotating in the corner of her eye. It was like watching some kind of data program with VR goggles, but this was real. It was kind of funny though when she shifted her head and to her vision the data encryption cube seemed to hover on Luka's shoulder in front of her. Curiously she glanced around kind of playing with it, making it look like it was bouncing about, and she might have let out a giggle but as she turned back a bit she saw the van again. They'd only gone a few steps, but it had started to move. She was positive it had crept forward perhaps half a car length. Her mirth died and she hurriedly turned her head forward again. Was it following them? She continued running her hacking program as they walked and forced herself to keep her eyes forward until finally a few blocks down they turned the corner. She glanced back as they did… and there was the van. It was following them! Abruptly Haku darted forward and snagged Luka's hand then yanked her forward to snag Miku's. They both let out surprised yelps as she did. "Haku-chin! What-?!"

"Let's take the subway!" She said abruptly and turned them down a different street.

"But the sweet shop is-" Miku said trying to point back the way they had turned.

"I know a different one, and I just really want to take the subway!" She said insistently as she began dragging them along. There was a subway platform not too far and she did her best to lead the other girls protesting and asking questions the whole way to it. Once they reached the stairs she hustled them down it casting glances over her shoulder as she did, looking for the van. She caught a glimpse of it around the last corner as they descended the stairs but she wasn't sure if they saw her and her friends or not before the view was cut off from the descent. Once they were below and had taken tickets to get onto the platform she let out a brief sigh of relief and looked at the concerned faces staring at her.

"What was that all about?" Miku flailed one arm back the direction they had come. "I was really looking forward to frozen yogurt!"

"There was a black van with tinted windows following us." She told them, and they all froze at the thought. "I don't know for sure how long they've been watching us, but that van was there when you brought me back from my parent's lab, and and I never saw it before that. I think something weird is going on."

"Mysterious black van?!" Gumi shuddered. "Creep-tastic!"

"Yeah that totally gives me the wiggins!" Miku agreed. "Where'd it come from."

"I'm trying to find out right now." Haku replied. The datastream she was connected to had faded a bit on the way down the stairs and the signal wasn't strong enough to make it's way farther under ground so she didn't want to move from that spot until she finished with it, but every moment they just stood there was another minute someone from that van could come down and find them. "Just give me a minute.."

They all blinked at her and Luka narrowed her eyes. "Haku-chin, what are you… are you hacking something?"

Haku nodded distractedly. "The DMV website, I'm trying to get it's registry information so we can figure out who it is."

"Haku-chin!" Luka gasped in alarm, her crystal voice ringing of worry. "That's a government controlled website! What if something goes wrong?!" She exclaimed just as the hack finished in Haku's mind.

"Oh I got it." She said as registry information began to scroll passed her mind's eye, and her red eyes widened in alarm. "Oh no…"

"What?! What is it?!" Miku flailed her arms again, this time in a more general way.

"It's… it's an undercover vehicle." She told them.

"Like… Public Security Intelligence?!" Gumi put a hand to her mouth as she gasped.

Haku nodded and glanced up the way they'd come, and her skin began to crawl. "I don't know if… if they were following me or all of us…" Abruptly her vision began to blur and grow cloudy. She let out a moan and clutched her head. "Uuuunnn…."

"Haku-chin?!" Luka and Miku shouted at the same time and dove for her.

"Get out… get out…" Haku muttered and clutched at her temples. She felt like her brain had caught fire.

"Haku-chin what's wrong?!" Luka's voice was thick with fear but Haku couldn't lift her head to look at her as she doubled over.

"They're… counter… hacking… me…"

"I'll call my parents!" Miku said whipping her phone out but Haku tried to stop her, succeeding only in stumbling forward with a weak moan of protest.

"No… no I… wait… Mi.. ku…" Luka and Miku caught her together as she fell and she heard Gumi and Teto's insistent voices as they talked to each other but all of her attention was turned inward. Her 3D vision was a haze of red warning… well 'light' wasn't the right word, she thought, since it was only her eyes that could see it and there was no real illumination, but it was intense whatever it was. She could see staticy lines criss crossing her vision as lines of code swept into her mind trying to disable her. But this was her domain, her own temple as it were. She'd worked on her own code so long and hard these past weeks between being trapped in her parent's lab as well as since she'd been back with the more secure facilities of the Vocaloid Compound that she knew where all of her access points were, and her biological brain interpreted those for her in her vision overlay as small black holes into which the foreign code was trying to force itself. She focused on locking those access points down, and the black holes turned into grey circles, like greyed out buttons on a computer desktop, and the invasive scripts seemed to ricochet off them. Dislodged from their purpose she managed to sever her link to the datastream which cut the script's access to her and abruptly she was able to squash the foreign programming, deleting it from her mind entirely. She blinked her red eyes and looked up, gasping and panting. Somehow she was on the ground staring up at the ceiling, her head cradled in Miku's lap as the petite girl held her with Luka standing over her talking to a stranger.

"No it's okay, we've already got it under control."

"You're sure?" the stranger asked. "I could call an ambulance?"

"I'm okay…" Haku said weakly trying not to sound like she'd just woken up or something. "Really, thank you." She managed to sit up and her eyes widened as she saw men in black suits and sunglasses with ear pieces on coming down the stairs. Abruptly time did that thing for her where everything seemed to slow down. She supposed that was a part of her defensive programming, the way her cybernetic mind could process information so many hundreds of times faster than a normal human brain, and that in reality time was moving at it's normal rate, but several factors suddenly seemed to leap out at her as important. First, the subway car that was near them, the train having just pulled up a moment before. Second, the density of foot traffic right around them. There were far more people between them and the suited men than there was between them and the train. Finally, their tickets. They had them, the men didn't, and would need a moment to either take one each or override the system. She grabbed her girlfriends' hands again and used her body to heave herself upright and into Gumi and Teto, bodily shoving all of them toward the subway car. The men shouted, pointing at them, but as far as Haku was concerned they were moving through molasses and had no chance of stopping them. All five girls stumbled through the doors as they began to close, and a moment later the train began to launch from the platform.

"That was definitely PSI-" Luka started to say as it looked for a moment as though they'd gotten away, but right as the launching train began to clear the platform a brief blur at the edge of their vision gave them the only warning, and they all flinched as a window blew inward from the very edge of the platform in the very last possible instant before the tunnel swallowed the train. People screamed and scrambled away from the rain of glass and the Vocaloids all looked up just in time to register short brown hair and pale locks, and two gun barrels pointed at them. In the instant before the triggers were pulled Haku tried to dive for her girlfriends protectively, but the gunshots rang out a bare instant before a stabbing pain bloomed in her chest just below her right shoulder. Shock, numbness, she wondered briefly if death by bullet would take long… but then she saw a dart sticking out of Luka's arm and Miku's tummy. Her girlfriends winced and pulled the darts with depressed plungers out of themselves and dropped them on the floor of the subway. Haku looked down at the one in her chest as her vision began to cloud over, this time with the fuzzy haze of grogginess. She lifted a hand to it to pull it out as her lovers had done, but her muscles didn't want to cooperate and she ended up just swiping at it and missing, then she slumped backwards into a seat.

"Error…" she heard herself say weakly. "Systems compromised… error…"

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is a Public Security Intelligence matter." Meiko was declaring loudly as she held up a badge with the hand not holding her dart gun so everyone could see it from where she'd come crashing through the subway's window. "Please remain where you are as we take these three women into custody. We appreciate your cooperation." She lowered her arms and returned the badge to a pocket and the dart gun to a holster on her hip even as Ia was putting hers away. Haku couldn't seem to focus her eyes on anything very well. She didn't know what was happening to her and thought for a minute she must be imagining things until Luka and Miku stood up to step between her and Meiko, standing shoulder to shoulder over her protectively. She tried to put a put a hand out to stop them, but whatever weakness was overcoming her made it a feeble effort.

"What have you done to Haku-chin, Sakine-san." Luka's voice was low, dark, and hard as diamonds. She'd lost Haku twice now, blamed herself for both times, and was determined not to allow it again.

Meiko blinked at them In surprise. "How can you two still stand? That biogel was supposed to disrupt your nanites. It worked on Haku."

Everyone glanced at her, and Haku felt her head roll back on it's own. She almost thought this must be what it was like to be drunk, but the thought came from far away through the haze clouding her mind. "Error…" her voice came again. "Systems… compromised…" She shifted her groggy gaze sideways and saw Gumi and Teto whispering to each other.

"She asked you a question." Miku sounded equally as determined, low chimes in a thunderstorm, the silk sheath sliding from her steel Hatsune core.

Ia wrung her hands nervously, casting furtive glances from the Vocaloids to the passengers who were all pressing themselves up against either ends of the subway car as it sped along it's subterranean track. "This… this isn't supposed to be happening… I thought… we wouldn't have to… to fight them…" she sounded distressed, like she were the one under attack.

"Well the serum didn't work on Megurine-san or Hatsune-san, so we might have to." Ia let out a moan protest and Meiko sighed and shook her head. "Fine… then call for further orders if you want."

"I'm trying, but I don't have reception down here." The pale eyed girl said plaintively, tilting her head this way and that like she was trying to hear something. "Meiko-tan, I… I don't want to hurt them…"

Meiko looked from Ia to Luka and Miku then back again before sighing and shaking her head. "It's not like we have any more choice in this than they do…" she muttered before looking up to the girls staring defiantly at her. "Look, you three come peacefully and I promise… well, I can't promise much but I'll do what I can to keep you from having too much trouble."

You three… three women… Haku couldn't think straight, she was missing something… there were five of them… at that moment Gumi started to move beside her and it clicked into place. She jerked a hand sideways to bump the green haired girl's side, and when she looked down at her Haku muttered thickly but quietly, "Error…" she swallowed hard and forced her mouth to cooperate. "Don't… try… they... don't… know… about… you… get… away… warn… Miku's… parents…"

"What about you?" Teto whispered quietly.

"Get… away… have… to… warn… directors…"

"You're totally nuts if you think we'll just surrender." Miku said in her steely tones.

"That's right." Luka agreed. "I'll never let Haku-chin go again. You want us, you'll have to deal with me first."

They started long and hard at each other, stern looks passing between one pair of girls and the other, except for Ia who was still wringing her hands and looking worried like crazy. Finally Meiko gestured at the train and the people around them. "Not here; we wait until the next stop." They nodded and waited but no one relaxed as the subway sped along. They all waited intently until the train finally began to slow as it reached it's next platform, and as soon as it slowed to a halt and the doors opened there was a mad rush to the exits. It was all Haku could do to level a meaningful look at Gumi and Teto and push at their legs. They very obviously didn't want to leave, but they glanced at Luka and Miku's backs. If those two couldn't handily this, they knew they couldn't, and warning Director Hatsune was absolutely important, so finally they gave a nod and slipped out with crowd rushing past.

"You're not going to attack while we get Haku-chin off the train are you?" Luka asked as people boarding began to move onto the car "She doesn't look like she can stand on her own."

Ia let out a little whine, "We wouldn't do that!"

Meiko just narrowed her eyes. "What do you think we are, monsters? Of course you can move her."

"You say that…" Luka muttered but turned with Miku to bend down over Haku. She felt her girlfriend's arms go under hers and had a slight moment of vertigo as she registered that she was being hoisted into the air. She tried to get her legs under herself but they wouldn't cooperate and the other two had to completely support her as they disembarked. They got her over to a set of empty benches and set her gently down in a seat, then the pink haired beauty turned to lock her blue eyes to green with an intent look. "Miku-chin, stay with Haku-chin."

Miku blinked in surprise, "What? No way! What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to try to goad Sakine-san into fighting me alone." Luka replied quietly. "She doesn't seem anything like Juon-san, I think I can play into that." She ran a hand gently over Haku head. "I want you here incase Aria-san tries anything. I can't…" She swallowed emotion suddenly in her throat. "We can't lose Haku-chin again."

Miku stared at her a moment then shook her head, "Okay, but… if they don't agree, then I'm helping." She said insistently.

"Doesn't… want… to… do… this…" Haku murmured thickly, trying to force the words out through the cotton that felt like was clogging her mouth. "Error… systems compromised…"

"Shhhhh, Haku-chin, it's okay, we're right here." Luka said soothingly, stroking her white locks again, but Haku shook her head again.

"Sakine-san… Aria-san… aren't… error… doing this… cuz they... want to…" It was so hard to talk, so hard to think, Haku felt like she was slipping into a pool of blackness even though she didn't seem to be losing consciousness. "Not… bad… don't… hurt… them… error…"

"Haku-chin, they're going to take you if we don't defend ourselves." Miku said worriedly, chewing at one lip. "Maybe take all three of us. They're with the government."

"Not… their… choice… please…"

Luka and Miku traded looks then the pink haired beauty gave a nod. "I'll do my best, Haku-chin, but I'm not letting them take us." She started to stand but Miku caught her arm.

"Be careful." She told her, and Luka nodded before stepping away.

"All set then?" Meiko asked from the other end of the platform, and Luka glanced around. She'd been so intent on her lovers she hadn't really paid attention as Meiko and Ia had cleared the platform, apparently closing it off to the public, flashing their badges around and putting up caution tape at the entrances.

"Haku-chin says you're not here by choice." Luka's crystalline voice had turned hard as diamonds once more as she drew herself up before the two government women. "But even so, if you're here to take her away from us, I won't allow it. You don't know what I am and what I'm capable of, and even though I promised her I wouldn't hurt you I can't allow it. For your own sakes, I ask you to leave."

"Allow it?" Meiko said and waved a hand vaguely at nothing. "Megurine-san, with nothing more than the flick of a wrist I could have whole squads inbound on our location. You would be overwhelmed by my reinforcements before you could so much as form a plan."

Luka narrowed her eyes. "Then you haven't called for them yet?"

"Not yet." The brown haired girl said. "But it only takes a thought from one of us."

"They're Vocaloids!" Miku cried out behind them. "The way they shattered the train window, the way they talked about reception!"

"Not Vocaloids…" Ia replied. "Not exactly…"

"If you're not here willingly…" Luka said slowly, beginning to see what Haku had apparently already seen. "And you're like us… and you came the other day to help us…?" She tilted her head, her pink ponytail swaying behind her. "You should be with us. I don't pretend to know what's happened to you, what you've been through, but… we can help you."

"We can't… go against our orders…" Ia was wringing her hands again.

Meiko slashed at the air with a hand. "Enough of this. It's pointless."

"But Meiko-tan-" Ia started to say, but Meiko cut her off.

"There's no helping it. It's a nice little fantasy, I'll give you that, but like Ia-tan said, we can't disobey our orders." She had the look of a woman torn inside but taking the only course she could, and Luka felt her heart reaching out to Meiko for it… then she steeled herself. She had to harden her resolve, had to be steadfast. Her girlfriends were depending on her.

"Then I suggest we settle this ourselves." Luka said to a curious tilt of the head from Meiko. "Just the two of us. I'm sure you want to keep Aria-san as safe as I want to keep Haku-chin and Miku-chin…?"

Meiko glanced back at Ia with a concerned look on her face, and Ia shook her head. "No, Meiko-tan. I can help. I-"

The short haired girl winced and shook her head. "No, she's right. Two on two or one on one, the outcome is the same. We win and we've done what we're compelled to do. If we lose… well. One of us has to make it back to report, right?"

Ia's face contorted into one of worry and fear. "No! Don't talk like that!"

"I promised Haku-chin I wouldn't hurt you." Luka offered. "But I won't hold back in protecting her either. That comes first and foremost, always. I can promise you though, that I want all of us to walk out of here as much as you do, even if in a different way."

Meiko considered her a moment then nodded and stepped out to the middle of the subway platform to meet Luka face to face. "Fine then, I agree."

With that there seemed little else to say, and as the hush fell over them all, so deep and so intense that they could have heard a pin drop. Haku tried to lift her head so she could see a little better, and Miku, noticing her efforts, put her arms under Haku's shoulders and shifted her so she could lean against her. Haku's leaned her head against Miku's shoulder and their arms went around each other, and they could do little more than watch. Each girl stood staring at the other, sizing each other up, trying to read what that other world do, see if they could notice a weakness to exploit or advantage to seize. Abruptly both moved at the same time, Meiko in attack, Luka in a counter. The ex police girl's note was more of a mild humm but there was nothing muted about the tannish sonic boom that ripped through the air toward the idol, covering the short distance in no time. Luka already had a wrist up however, and a flick of pink light from it was all it took to counter Meiko's opening wave, breaking it like an ocean wave over rock. Meiko tried again, stepping to the side, but Luka twisted in a dance step to move with her, and countered again. Scowling Meiko flung several quick blasts in rapid succession, the sonic energy kicking up dust trails along the ground, but Luka just popped an elbow and spun in a short pirouette and they faded like the others.

"What is this?!" Meiko demanded. "Some sort of dance recital? Fight me!"

"We're Vocaloids, Sakine-san." Luka said, calm as a frozen glacier, hard as the deepest ice. "Everything we do, fighting included, is a dance, is art." Meiko growled at her and resumed attacking and it quickly became clear that she didn't think the same way. Her attacks were all direct, all force output, all straight ahead, all telegraphed. Luka danced around them, danced around her opponent, in a swirl of pink hair and gold trimmed black skirt, dodging some and countering others. This went on for some time as the idol continued to fight what seemed at first to be a defensive battle, but eventually her strategy became apparent as Meiko's attacks began to slow down a little bit. Only a little at first, but it was noticeable, and the gap continued to widen. Meiko had police academy fighting techniques and whatever additional combat training the Public Security gave it's agents, but she was still a rookie, still lacked experience. Luka on the other hand was an idol, had been a Vocaloid for over two years, had been training in the Odoru no Budo the entire time and had countless souldrinker hunts in the field under her belt. The difference was showing, and she had to do little more than dode and occasionally counter with the barest minimum power required. Luka was wearing down her opponent slowly over time, and the more tired Meiko got the more frustrated she became, her attacks going wide or holding more sonic energy than they really should have. Eventually the ex police girl became winded, her breath coming in short huffs as she tried to keep up with the graceful dancer, but it was very abruptly apparent that she couldn't and that that had been Luka's plan all along. She was fulfilling her promise to Haku, and she was doing it without ever throwing an attack.

"She's so elegant…" Miku murmured appreciatively as she held on to Haku.

"Error…" Haku agreed.

After what seemed like a long period of time of the fight going on to little effect Meiko finally dropped to her knees, gulping air heavily, her chest heaving and her short brown hair damply matted to her forehead. "Why… why can't I... " She squeezed her eyes shut. "They took everything from me! They took my career, my future, my LIFE! They programmed me so I couldn't do anything but what they told me, and now I can't even do THAT!"

Haku felt sorry for the girl who was once her friend, and despite what she'd done to her she wanted to help her. She thought she could, if she could move under her own power right then, or think clearly. As it was all she could do was lay there sagged against Miku like a useless sack of rice. Luka moved over to her though and knelt down beside her, putting a hand on Meiko's shoulder. "You're strong, Sakine-san, maybe even close to our level. You lost because you lack technique. Come with us. If you can fix Haku-chin she can help you, I know it."

Ia rushed up beside Meiko and squatted down beside her, throwing her arms around the other girl. "I wish we could… I really wish we could…" she murmured in despair.

"We can't…" Meiko panted, still out of breath. "We can't… disobey…"

"Maybe… maybe if Yowane-san… did it here…?" Ia asked hopefully.

"She can't." Miku piped up. "Whatever you did to her she's completely out of it." Her chime like voice had a dichotomy in it, resentment at what had been done to Haku mixing with feeling bad for the two government women. "Can you fix her? Then she might be able to..."

"Even if we could, that could be seen as going against our orders too." Meiko sat back on her haunches, gulping a bigger lungful of air as she finally started catching her breath. "It will… eventually wear off on it's own I'm told, but you don't have time for that. As soon as I get my energy back I'll feel compelled to resume my mission, and even if that wasn't enough, this area will be swarming with government agents any minute."

Luka's blue eyes widened. "I thought you said you didn't call for reinforcements."

"We didn't." Meiko replied. "But we're government property, and we cost a fortune. You don't think they'd just leave us out here for long, do you?"

"Property…" Luka practically spat, the taste of that word souring her mood faster than anything. "You aren't property, you're your own women."

"We're not…" Ia said dolefully. "If we even look like we'll disobey they have a… a sort of command word they can compel us with."

"We used to have that too." Miku said sympathetically, and her heartfelt concern brought their heads up.

"Used to?" Meiko asked with interest.

"Haku-chin fixed us." Miku said, a touch of pride in her voice. "You have no idea how wonderful and brilliant she is."

"Error." Haku objected. "Systems compromised."

"Most of the time…" Miku amended.

"I can't even imagine… what that must be like." Meiko breathed. "If I could make this work, I would, but…" She clenched her jaw and shook her head, turning her gaze up to Luka once more. "You have to get out of here. We can't do anything to help you, and you can't do anything to help us. You have to leave before they find us here like this."

"They'll just chase them." Ia said, and all eyes turned to the pale haired girl. "We know where your family's manor is now, Hatsune-san. If you go back there, they'll just follow you there. We'll just come there when we're recovered. This doesn't end here."

"Then we'll just have to be prepared." Luka said. "We have other resources, other forces, we can hold off agents and maybe recapture you at that time."

"We have other forces too." Meiko said, looking up with a meaningful expression. "You don't think we're the only ones the government has made of our kind, do you?" That thought sobered them all right up, and Luka turned to Miku with a concerned look.

"We can't go home." She told them. "We'd just lead them right back to your parents."

Miku's face was a picture of her pain, her emotions being torn in two. She bit her lip and glanced around. "This… that's…" She shook her head. "That's completely unfair! What are we supposed to do?!"

"You have to run." Ia replied. "Run far, run away. They'll just keep hunting you otherwise."

"Hunting us why?" Luka demanded, but Ia shook her head.

"I'm not sure, but they want her." She gestured at Haku. "They want all three of you really, but they want Yowane-san especially. Something about how she was made. So you have to flee."

"Spend our lives on the run?!" Miku cried out. "What sort of future is that?!"

"It's your only option right now." Meiko said. "And if you're going to take it, you'd better do it quickly. I'm getting close to recharged." She said in a warning tone.

Luka straightened up, standing over the two women that had attacked them, and winced down at them, at the situation they all found themselves in. "We'll figure out a way. Somehow… somehow we'll figure this out. Next time…" She trailed off.

"I hope so…" Meiko whispered, and the idol turned back to her girlfriends.

They gathered Haku up between them, pulling one of her arms each over either of their shoulders, and began to make their way to the exit. She felt like a rag doll being carted off, but as they reached the stairs Ia called after them.

"Turn your cell phones off." Whatever programming restrictions she was under apparently didn't extend to a bit of advice right that moment, and they glanced back at her. "They can track your GPS." She paused a moment then muttered almost inaudibly, "Actually they can track just about anything…"

"Thank you, Aria-san." Luka said. The five women shared one last lingering look of regret between each other, then Miku and Luka got Haku out of the subway platform and away from the dangerous place. This particular dangerous place, at any rate. Suddenly, every place was dangerous...


	28. Vocaloid Academy Chapter 28

The bite of the winter air was harsh, and for all that Haku usually liked the cold tonight it was bitter and she was trying hard to keep from distracting herself with thoughts of a nice warm fire. The dark of evening helped to conceal her at least, and she moved down the street as carefully as possible, trying hard to look inconspicuous. She had the hood of the sweater she was wearing lifted as far as possible to conceal her snowy white locks, her cascading mane tucked beneath it and into the waistline of the plain black pants she was wearing. She remembered wishing the other day that she'd had time to change into something cuter, but this was functional and in the situation she was now in with no way to change, that was probably for the best. She moved along the street trying to look like any other evening time pedestrian with somewhere to be and making her way there, neither walking slowly nor hurrying for all she wanted to run. She'd been out on the streets for too long already, and if she was around much longer and some camera on some building somewhere happened to catch the right angle of her face it could spell trouble. She couldn't afford to run either, that might attract attention too, and attention of any sort was the last thing she wanted right then. They'd already had two run ins with agents in earlier days and she wanted to avoid more. So she forced her feet to keep a steady walking pace, making her way along at a deliberately even keel.

She'd gotten lucky tonight and had found a baker who hadn't yet thrown out the day's baking that hadn't sold. Usually such circumstances were a nice discounted meal but this man had been extremely kind and had given the haul to her for nothing, saying he'd just been going to toss it anyway. He'd even given her a bag to carry it in, and she'd been profuse in her gratitude to the kind man. Even though the baking was crusty she was excited to share the bounty of pastries and croissants with her girlfriends. There were even two meat pies, and that was the most exciting part to her. She just had to be careful until she could get to the edge of city limits. She was almost there, another fifteen minute walk at most. She shivered as a frigid gust tugged at her body and pulled the sweater more tightly around herself, picking up her pace a tiny bit after all. That wouldn't look unnatural, not with the wind.

As she walked along Haku turned her attention inward, trying to catch the odd feeling she'd had earlier the day before. When she'd been scavenging she'd been thinking about how much easier things would be if she didn't have her distinctive white hair and red eyes anymore, and she'd felt a surge of… something… from within herself. She wasn't sure what it had been, but Vocaloids were creatures of instinct and emotion and she was trying to follow that surge of feeling she'd had. It had responded to a need, and she knew without a shadow of a doubt it had to do with her abilities as a Vocaloid, had to do with her untapped potential she'd mentioned to the others before, but she wasn't entirely sure what it had been. She just had to coax it out, had to wiggle at the feeling until it came loose, like a metaphorical loose tooth. She pondered at it from every angle she could think of; how it had felt, where she'd been when it had happened, what she'd been doing, what she'd been thinking, what might have sparked it, and when she'd gone over it all in her head she let it be for a time and then started all over again. There had definitely been a physical sensation, but she didn't have the words to describe it, and all she could do was replay it in her mind over and over until she did.

Abruptly she stumbled and flung out a hand to catch herself on the wall of a building she was passing as a searing pain lanced through her head momentarily disorienting her. To her vision she saw red pulsing warning letters appear seeming to float against the wall she was bracing against, letters she knew no one else could see, that read ' _Warning: Programming conflict, driver error, critical system incompatibility_ '. Her red eyes widened as tears stung them from the pain and she stared at the warning flashing before her. It was all she could do to keep herself upright leaning against the wall and even then it seemed like she might slide off of it at any moment. She didn't know what this meant, didn't know why it was happening, and it went on for what seemed like an eternity. Finally however the warning slowly faded away as the pain receded, and when she could look up once more she was panting from the exertion. She looked up, glanced around at where she'd stopped. The city was still alight with Christmas lights even though the actual Christmas Day had come and gone a week past, though a few buildings were beginning to take them down. The ones that remained were still pretty, and she felt a pang of sadness that soon they would be gone again for another year. She loved the lights, and she loved winter… when she wasn't stuck out in it with no place to go anyway. At least the snow from the other day had melted off again. One of the few perks to living in a big city; even if the snow drifts were centimeters deep not more than a half hour's drive out of city limits it was blessedly hard to keep anything stuck when the buildings trapped what warmth there was. It was hard enough to keep warm as it was with little more than their sweaters. They couldn't risk anything else though… not when any camera could betray them at any moment. Putting a hand to her head and wondering at the sudden pain and the warning message, she continued on her walk.

At last coming around the final corner she saw the abandoned building they were staying in. She wasn't sure what it had been before, some sort of factory she thought, but any telling machinery had long since been removed and sold off so it was just a shell of a brick husk now. It was only three floors but it was long and had several ground floor doors they'd found when they'd finally stumbled upon it that first night exhausted and on the verge of tears. Her girlfriends had been carrying her because she'd been unable to move at the time, and their strength had been at it's limit when they'd found this refuge. They had all collapsed just inside the entryway, them hardly able to move any more than she herself had at that moment. It had taken nearly the entire next day for Haku to recover from whatever Meiko had injected her with, and she'd felt drained and weak for another full day after that. Now, nearly a week later, she'd just been happy enough to be able to pull her own weight in the scrounging duties. It wasn't fair for them to have had to take care of her, so she'd done her best for them ever since.

Once inside she rushed up the stairs to the second floor, relieved to be out of sight of the outside, and found Miku and Luka huddled around their little space heater in the corner of the empty floor farthest from any windows. They perked up when they saw her and she hurried over to them, eager to show them what she'd brought them, but blinked in surprise as the other idols smiled up at her from their position atop some blankets. Luka patted the top of one spread out like a little futon pad or something in an inviting way between herself and the light blue haired girl. "Welcome back, Haku-chin. Look what we've got."

With a little squee of delight Haku flung herself down on the big fluffy grey blanket and rolled about on it face first for a minute. It was so fuzzy and warm she thought she might melt of happiness. Well, it was warm compared to the frigid air anyway, and one corner of it had captured some of the heat from the little space heater, which had been the only working appliance they'd found so far. It had literally saved them, and even though it gave so little warmth they had huddled around it to share what it did give every night they'd been in this building. The past several nights all they'd had was it and the sweaters they'd found in a donation box for salvation store they'd taken. They each were still wearing the clothes they'd left the Vocaloid Compound in the day Meiko had attacked them and little more. Haku and Miku hadn't even brought their handbags that day, and Luka had only had a little cash on her which was long gone by now. They'd stretched it on food as much as they'd been able to until it was gone and had been scrounging ever since. They couldn't risk using Luka's credit card, it might be traced.

The other two girls let out giggles seeing her rolling on the blanket. They each had one it looked like and Haku looked up at them. "A donation box?" She asked curiously.

"Actually no." Luka said. "Miku-chin found them."

"I helped an old lady put away some groceries she'd had delivered." Miku explained, curling up on her blanket and scooting closer to Haku. "She said her grandson was delayed at work and she had perishable things that needed put away, so I offered to help. While I was putting things away she noticed I was shivering and offered me the blankets in exchange for my work. It was very sweet of her."

"Oh that's so nice." Haku buried her face in the soft blanket again, her heart swelling with happiness in the simple joy of a warm comforter. First the baker, now this… it was enough to make her tear up a bit. Oh! The baker! "I have a surprise for you both as well." She said, leaning up and drawing the bag over to her. Their eyes went wide and they let out little aaaahhs as she set out the breads, pastries, and two meat pies. "I found a baker who hadn't thrown out today's baking yet." She told them.

"That's amazing! Way to go Haku-chin!" Miku said happily and immediately took a curry bread. She took a big bite and smiled around it as she chewed. "Mmmmm, I've never tasted anything so wonderful in my whole life!"

"It's amazing how not having anything makes you appreciate what you manage to get more." Luka said in an introspective way as she took a bread too and began nibbling on it.

"As long as you're both with me, I can handle anything." Haku murmured as she began splitting both of the two meat pies in thirds.

"Therfs no whey we're leffing you ouffaf our sife again!" Miku said emphatically even as she chewed her bread.

"Miku-chin! Don't talk with your mouth full." Luka admonished her.

"Wha?! I'm starfing and thif if sho good!" The green eyed girl said. She chewed more purposefully, her expression darkening a bit in a pouty way.

"I wonder if we could find more people like the baker and the old lady." Haku said thoughtfully as she portioned the meat pies out for each of them, then divvied up the rest of the breads. Early on they'd tried to make her take more food than them, but each girl wanted to sacrifice for the other two so there was no way to make that situation fair, and they'd eventually agreed to share everything equally as they always had. "Doing things to earn some food here and there."

"Maybe, so long as we don't try the same people twice." Luka said after a moment when she'd swallowed her own bite of bread. "We can't risk exposing anyone more than we can help."

"Or leaving a trail that can be followed back to us." Haku agreed. She looked at the other girl's hair and eyes, so distinctive, such obvious markers. "I wish we could blend in more… if I still had my dark hair and eyes I could maybe risk finding somewhere to work or something, but…"

"We could dye our hair maybe." Miku suggested licking the crumbs from her fingers, shifting her her head a bit to let her free flowing light blue strands shift around her. She'd taken her twintails out the first day in an attempt to minimize her recognition as much as possible. Luka wore her hair loose as often as she did in a ponytail so it didn't matter so much for her. "Maybe even get colored contacts for our eyes?"

"Those sorts of cosmetics are expensive." Luka pointed out. "Unless you buy the really cheap off brands, and then they aren't very reliable. We'd need money for that."

"We could use your credit card…" Miku said tentatively. "If it's just the one time, it might be worth it?"

"I don't want to risk that unless it's an emergency." Luka said. "Aria-san said they could trace just about anything."

"Jeez! This sucks!" Miku slapped her hands on her dark blanket in frustration. "We're idols! We're rich and famous and have thousands of adoring fans! We shouldn't have to be squatting in an abandoned building like this!"

"Miku-chin…" Luka said soothingly.

"I'm sorry." She said with a little sniffle. "I'm just… I'm so frustrated!" Haku leaned up and wrapped her arms around the petite girl and Miku buried her face in her shoulder. "I'm hungry and I'm freezing and I just want to go home!" She let out a single gasping sob against Haku's shoulder, then shuddered and tried to pull away, but Haku held on.

"Come here, Miku-chin." She said, and shifted them around so Miku was in the middle instead, then pressed in close even as Luka did on the other side, sandwiching the shorter girl between them.

Miku flushed a little bit but then burrowed in between them a little deeper. "... s'nice." Luka picked up a creme pastry and put it to Miku's mouth, who took a little bite, and they proceeded to share it, nibbling at it together. Haku reached over to the corner where they had a couple of two liter bottles they'd filled with water and shared a drink with them. At least water was easy enough to get. For a little while all three were silent as they ate, their stomachs filling up more than they had in days, then abruptly Luka looked up at Haku.

"What about your parent's lab?" She asked.

"Ha?" She replied in surprise. "What about it?"

"Haku-chin turned it into a crater." Miku reminded the pink haired beauty.

"Well yeah, but it was just one explosion, right?" Luka persisted.

Haku nodded. "I overloaded the fusion generator beneath it."

"So, what if there's something salvageable?" Luka replied.

"Like what?" Miku wanted to know.

Luka shrugged. "I don't know, a car maybe? Or even a car battery. An engine. I don't know, anything would be helpful here." She gestured around at the abandoned building.

"How would we even get an engine back here from there?" Haku asked. "It's not like we could carry it."

"For that matter, how would we even get there ourselves to begin with?" Miku added. "We're supposed to be avoiding attention, right? That's a long way across a chunk of the city. It would take most of the morning and afternoon to get there if we cross it, and way longer if we went around."

Luka's thought on it for a time before suggesting, "We could… borrow a car…?"

Miku's eyes narrowed. "You mean steal."

"No, I mean borrow. We'd pay for it when we could later on." They both looked at her sternly, neither able to believe what the blue eyed girl was suggesting.

"Really? This is the last sort of thing I'd expect from you, Luka-chin."

"Desperate times." Luka said, then they all fell silent again, each thinking on what the others had said.

There was no doubt that a vehicle would be extremely helpful to therm in a lot of ways, but stealing one would invite a whole host of other problems that Haku didn't think they were really prepared to deal with. They finished their meager meal in silence then pulled their sweaters more tightly around themselves and traipsed outside together to use the bathroom. Haku would have done just about anything for a nice long soak in a hot bath but all they had was an outhouse with an old hand sanitizer dispenser in it that was running out. They took turns in the thing, none of them wanting to go out alone or wait inside alone, then they trudged back inside to their pallets and laid down once more. Miku tried to take an outside spot again but Luka tucked her firmly back into the middle since the more petite girl was more susceptible to the cold, and they all huddled together for warmth, pulling what blankets they could over themselves. Haku pillowed her head on Miku's shoulder and after a few moments she felt a hand stroking her head. She didn't know whose it was, but it was nice either way. After a bit she heard her name whispered in the darkness.

"Haku-chin?"

"Hm?"

"Do you think… if I asked sweetly enough… you could genius a way out of this for us?" Miku's chime like voice was so quiet, so sad… Haku turned her head up and pressed a gentle kiss to the other girl's lips. She thought her heart would break for her girlfriends, she would do anything to help them.

"For you, Miku-chin." Haku said just as quietly, "For you, I'll genius anything you want."

"Thanks Haku-chin." Miku said just as quietly. "I love you."

"I love you." She squeezed the other girl back, and there was a rustle in the darkness from the other side of the petite girl.

"Is that all it would have taken?" Luka asked in a mock surprised voice. "Come here, I'll give you a kiss in trade for a genius too."

They giggled and kissed and squeezed closer together and eventually fell asleep in each other's arms, though it felt less like drifting off to sleep and more like succumbing to exhaustion. The blankets were soft and wonderful but it was still a pallet on a hard floor and not a proper futon, and Haku spent the night drifting in and out of sleep as her muscles seized up uncomfortably from the poor sleeping conditions. At one point in the night she heard Miku crying softly in the darkness and she reached a hand up to brush at her tears, and they huddled together for comfort as well as warmth. What sleep she did get was riddled with strange dreams that made no sense. In one she was running from a giant nanite the size of a car, sure that if it caught her it would change her into something else. In another she was working desperately on a project on a computer that she was convinced held the answers to their problems. In yet another she was drowning in a pool filled with biomemetic nanite fluid so deep she had no idea where the bottom was and couldn't see the edges. She moaned and shifted, trying to breathe.

"Haku-chin, wake up!"

"Ha?!" She came wake suddenly and looked up to her lovers sitting over her looking down in concern.

"Oh thank god." Miku said worriedly.

"What's wrong?" Haku asked.

"We couldn't wake you up." Luka said. "You were tossing and turning and moaning something we couldn't make out."

"It was so weird, you're usually first awake." Miku looked worried. "You're not getting sick again are you?"

"We still don't know why you got sick and we didn't from Sakine-san's darts." Luka put in. "Maybe it's coming back?"

She stared at them for a long few moments, her red eyes wide as she tried to puzzle out what her mind was trying to tell her. Nanites… biomemetic fluid… drowning… what was it.. It was right there, something right on the edge of her mind. She pressed her hands to her tummy, she could almost feel it. What was it… what was it?! She tried to force her mind to give her the answer but the stubborn thing refused to budge.

"Haku-chin…?"

Haku looked up abruptly. "I need a laptop."

They widened their eyes at her. "We need more batteries for our space heater is what we need," Miku told her.

"This building doesn't even have power." Luka pointed out. "How are you going to use a laptop?"

Haku shook her head, "I don't know, maybe we should find a building with power to stay in, but I need a laptop."

"What for?" Miku asked, and Haku reached up to stroke the pretty light blue haired girl's cheek.

"Because I promised you a genius." They stared at her wide eyed for a minute then Haku gestured off at outer edges of the city they were near to. "Maybe I can find something at my parent's lab, but if we have to then maybe I can… appropriate one, I don't know. But I'm absolutely positive that if I can do some testing on us I can solve some things for us."

"What kind of testing?" Luka wanted to know.

"I'm not sure, I had a dream about it, but I think it was my subconscious trying to tell me something." She needed it to find out why her head had hurt the night before too, to try to diagnose that warning message, but she didn't tell them about that. She felt bad for keeping it secret, but she thought it would just worry them needlessly at this point. They looked at her dubiously and she shook her head again. "I don't know, I'm sorry, I don't have answers, but I'm positive…"

They stared at her longer as she trailed off then turned to glance at each other. Miku shrugged and Luka nodded. "Alright Haku-chin, let's go look at your parent's lab."

"Should we go through the city… or around…?" Miku brought up the question from the night before. They thought about it a moment or two, none wanting to go the long way around but not wanting to risk the attention in city either.

"Around." Luka finally said. "The daylight just makes it too easy for any random camera to catch our faces."

They nodded and glanced around. There were really no preparations to make, nothing they could really gather up or things they needed to see too, so all they did was help each other straight their hair. Simple ponytails all around did the best to keep from looking too unkempt, and with that done they used the outhouse once more then set off. The walk was long and the morning stretched on in to afternoon as they trudged around the outskirts of the city. None of them was feeling particularly cheerful and they didn't talk very much as they walked beyond idly pointing at this or that and commenting. Haku tried hard to just focus on the walk and their purpose, but her stomach was slowly beginning to gnaw at her in an increasingly insistent way. The leftover pastries they'd had the previous night had been the best they'd had in days and even that couldn't have been called a full meal. Breakfast time had come and gone and lunch time was on it's way out by this point as they were walking and she was just beginning to wonder if she was starting to have blood sugar issues with the way her body began to feel flush all over when a loud gurgling suddenly filled the air between them. Haku turned to glance to the side and saw Luka doing the same and Miku flushed deeply.

"S-Sorry…" The petite girl said. "I'm trying not to-" Another loud gurgle rolled out and this time Luka flushed.

"I wonder…" Luka said slowly, "How long we can go before it can be considered emergency enough to use my credit card…"

Another noise filtered through the air like a rolling sound and the other two girls shifted their gazes to Haku but she glanced away down the block. "That wasn't me, that was too rhythmic." She turned and headed down to the corner to see which way the noise was coming from. It was the wrong direction than the way they were going, but they needed to see where it was to avoid it, and they came around a corner to see a festival come into view. Their eyes widened as the drums thundered around them and they looked to each other with big eyes.

"Why is there a festival on the edge of the city?!" Miku asked in surprise.

"It must be a local party of some kind." Luka replied, "Maybe they did it here because they didn't have enough room somewhere else? Festivals get moved sometimes."

"Look at all the people." Miku said, and then her green eyes widened. "So much food..." She was right, there were vendors of all kinds all over the place, nick nacks and food stands and everything. It looked a lot like the festival that had been done near the Vocaloid Compound a couple of months back, maybe as many people, maybe a little more even. She turned around to the two taller girls with a hopeful look on her face and Haku turned to trade glances with Luka. She felt so bad for them she didn't know if she would have been able to refuse Miku in this or not but the choice was taken away from them before they could make it.

"OH MY GOD IT'S MEGURINE LUKA!" Followed almost immediately by another voice, "HATSUNE MIKU!" Haku leveled an exasperated look at her girlfriends and was about to tease them before she was surprised by a third voice "AND YOWANE HAKU!" Her red eyes went wide in alarm as she turned to see a group of girls rushing up to them. She felt an instance of that odd feeling resurging up within her that she'd had before, the strange one she was still trying to puzzle out, but she didn't have much time to think on it.

"How did they…?" Haku started to ask and felt a nudge in her side by Luka.

"Get used to it, it happens all the time." The pink haired beauty said, and Miku giggled at her. The rush of girls had their phones out and snapped a few pictures, and Haku winced. Reflexively she glanced up at the sky, checking for datastreams. There were a couple floating through the air but they were faint, almost looking stretched out or thin. Signal strength was weak here, maybe they wouldn't be noticed right away.

"Ohmigosh you're my FAVORITE idols like EVER!" One girl said sounding as bubbly as Miku usually did.

"Will you sign my handbag?!" Another gushed.

"I got autographs from them last week at their show!" Another said to her friends, who all let out appreciative sounds.

"Uhm! If you… if you wanted…" One sounded nervous at seeing famous idols but she edged forward and tugged at Miku's sleeve, getting the pretty light blue haired girl's attention. "If you wanted… my family… uhm… we have… uhm…" She blushed and trailed off, but a girl who looked similar to her beside her rolled her eyes and giggled.

"Sorry, my sister is shy. Our parents rented a pavilion to watch the fireworks tonight, and we're going to have a feast with our neighbors! Would you be our honored guests?"

"Feast?!" Miku exclaimed.

"We really need to be at… the place we're going… soon." Luka said

Miku's face fell but the girl waved a hand, "My daddy can drive you wherever you need to go after if you'd like." She glanced around at the gaggle of girls all around and waved over her head. "Everyone's welcome at our pavillion!"

"Well… the damage is done." Miku shrugged but couldn't make herself look too unhappy about it. "Might as well make the best of it." She leaned down a little to the shy girl, though in truth it wasn't that far for the petite idol to have to bend. "What's your name?"

"Shi- Shi- Shizuka!" The girl squeaked, fists clenched and eyes squeezed shut. "Shimodo Shizuka!" Her eyes popped open when Miku took her hand and smiled down at her.

"Well you invited us, Shizuka-chan. That makes you our host."

The girl's eyes widened and she smiled up at Miku. "I have all of your toys and collectibles, Hatsune-san! You're my hero!"

Miku flushed at that but smiled down at the girl. "You're too kind."

The older sister gave a little bow to Luka. "I'm Shimodo Haruka. Part of my name sounds a little like yours, Megurine-san!"

Luka put a hand to her mouth to hide it, though whether she was covering a smile or a grimace was anyone's guess. Her crystalline voice was steady though. "So it does."

The little crowd of girls surged around them as the Shimodo sisters began leading them off deeper into the festival, and Haku found herself besieged on all sides. She tried to give reply comments to the endless string of compliments aimed at her by the preteens but she couldn't get a word in edgewise as everything from her snowy hair and red eyes to her exotic mysterious air were commented on. She did her best to smile and nod at least without making it look too obvious that she was checking the buildings around them. She didn't see any security cameras or anything like that, maybe this section of the city was too remote for anything important, but she still looked. Fortunately it wasn't far too a largish grassy area that was less a park and more of an undeveloped lot where dozens of little pavilions had been set up, and the sisters led them straight to one.

"Mom! Dad! Lookit! We brought guests!" Haruka shouted.

"Of course of course!" A man's voice sounded from beneath an old style gas powered grill.

"The more the merrier!" Said an older woman's voice near the table. "There's drinks and snacks, help yourselves! Your father is preparing the-" She cut off as she looked up to see the idols and her eyes widened. "Oh! My goodness! How very surprising!"

"We found them on the edge of the festival and asked them to join us!"

"Well of course such esteemed personages as you are are welcome to our humble table!" She said with a bow to the idols.

"What's that?" The man asked standing up from beneath the grill and looking around, then his eyes went round as well. "Oh! My word! Hello there! I'm Shimodo Akida and this is wife Sakuo. Please, it would be our honor to have you as guests!"

The three of them bowed in return. "We're honored to be here, sir, but we're unfortunately unprepared." Luka told him as they straightened up. "Please forgive us for not being better guests."

He waved his hand away at that. "Nonsense! We have enough food here to feed an army! Please, help yourselves! No need to be shy or stand on formality today!"

The atmosphere was so hospitable and pleasant and the smells of cooking so overpowering to their empty stomachs that all three girls lost themselves to the fantastic feast for a time. Akida had been right, there was a ton of delicious things to try; takoyaki, rice balls, skewers, some sort of green and red peppers Haku didn't immediately recognize that were stuffed with beef and red sauce, mushroom caps which were also stuffed, trays of veggies and seaweed snacks, nuts and berries and even a giant melon. And that wasn't all either; as the event went on and she talked to various people it turned out this festival wasn't an official one but a neighborhood of people who had decided to hold their own, and this was the only place they'd gotten the city to allow them to hold it. It was far away from everything, but everyone seemed to know everyone else, and every kind of food and drink got passed around from neighbor to neighbor and the friendly informal community atmosphere wasn't something any of the three idols had ever really experienced before. These people had lived by each other for years, had raised their kids beside each other. It warmed Haku inside to be a part of it even if briefly in a way the food couldn't. She was delighted to see it.

"Haku-chin! Try this dipped apple!" Miku said lifting a stick up with an apple on it covered in some sort of flavored caramel. "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!" She said putting it too her lips, and Haku blushed a little bit but was happy to take a bite. She loved being fed by her girlfriends; it was a secret blissful pleasure.

"Oh noooooooooooooo!" Haruka suddenly exclaimed across the table from them, staring down at her tablet in dismay. She held it up so her parents could see. "It's doing it again!"

Sakuo blinked at the tablet then winced. "The guy at that repair shop said if it came back there might be a hardware failure. It might be broken for good."

Akida growled at the flickering screen. "Doesn't it just figure that this happens just weeks after the warranty runs out?!" He looked down at his daughter looking up at him with big doe eyes and he sighed. "We'll see if we can find a… reasonable replacement…"

Haku blinked and tilted her head. Tablets were made to do things wirelessly so it took no more than a thought for her to connect to it. In her mind's eye a 3D interface popped into existence and she began going through the device's files, specs, and info screens. She found the problem easily enough, a little icon representing it looking to her eyes like a little rotating graphic hovering in the air before her. She blinked when a hand touched her shoulder and she turned to see Luka looking at her intently. "Can you… do something?"

She knew what the pink haired beauty meant, and she felt the same way. It was an opportunity to repay the kindness they had been shown. Haku looked around and held up a hand, catching the fathers attention. "If you don't mind… may I take a look?"

He stared at her a moment as though not thinking he'd heard correctly, but Luka spoke up. "Haku-chin is a genius with these sorts of things. She might be able to help."

Akida shrugged, "Be my guest, but I've had the thing serviced twice, it's probably just broken." Haruka handed the tablet over, and Haku tapped at the screen a few times while monitoring the response it's hardware was throwing through her connection to it. The driver on the corrupted sector of the drive was still salvageable so she overwrote it and copied it to a different sector, then updated the physical pathing and the screen immediately stopped flickering. Everyone's eyes widened at the table. "You…! You fixed it!" The girl's father said in surprise as Haruka cheered when Haku handed it back.

"Not technically, no, but it will work fine now." She told him.

"What do you mean?" He asked.

"There was a corrupted data block in the drive that has a driver in it that-" She cut off as he stared at her in confusion.

"Layman's terms, Haku-chin." Miku giggled at her.

She had to think about it a moment then leaned over the table to slide an empty paper plate over to herself. "This is the tablet's internal information." She dipped her finger in Miku's melon soda to a whine of protest from her and began scribbling on the white plate leaving trails on the plate. "Whenever the tablet does anything it writes it on the drive." Everyone seemed enthralled and leaned forward to watch as Haku gripped the edge of the paper plate. "Sometimes the drive gets corrupted on one part." She twisted her fingers to crumple the edge of the plate and hiding some of the soda trail she'd made. "When that happens it messes up the Information in that spot on the drive." She pointed at the spot on the plate she'd wrinkled. "In this case, the Information on the tablet that was disrupted was important and it was having a hard time reading it."

"So what did you do?!" Haruka asked wide eyed.

Haku dipped the tip of her finger in Miku's soda again and drew a new line. "I told it to look somewhere else, since the rest of the drive is still good, and I told it not to use this part anymore at all." She set the soda can on top of the part she'd bent to hide it.

"What causes such a thing?' Sakuo asked.

"Anything really." Haku gave a little shrug. "It doesn't happen as much these days because technology has advanced passed old spinning disk drives, but there are still things that can go wrong. Internal errors, power disruptions or feedback, water damage or being dropped, any number of things really."

"Huh." Akida said in wonder. "Well! It sounds like you really know your stuff there, Yowane-san! Thank you for fixing it!"

Haku let out a giggle and couldn't help herself as she disconnected her mind from the tablet. "Your welcome. It's no problem, I just really have the _head_ for this sort of thing." Miku leaned her head back and gigglegroaned loudly. Luka swatted her arm.

They spent a lot longer with the Shimodos than they really should have but they were just such charming people it was hard to want to leave. Haku thought she would burst from all the food Sakuo kept passing her and she caught her girlfriends pressing hands to their tummies with looks on their faces that said they were having similar feelings, but it was all so delicious that they couldn't resist and the secret came out about it when Akida let slip that his wife was a professional chef. They ate and they talked with everyone who came to say hello, and they even signed anything they were asked too. Haku felt so ashamed inside that these people were taking care of them without knowing it that she would have signed anything they asked. They let the two sisters paint their nails; Haruka painted Luka's a bright red, Shizuka painted Miku's a sky blue, and they both did Haku's a slate grey. They talked with the parents the whole time, gossiping about anything that came to mind. Finally though they reached a point where they could ignore the time no longer and they stood up and made their apologies.

"Thank you so much for having us at your table," Luka said as all three of them bowed "You are all wonderful people and it was an honor."

"We're sorry we weren't prepared to be better guests." Miku added. "Next time you must let us treat you instead."

"Oh no dears, think nothing of it." Sakuo said with a big smile. "It was such a treat having you here."

"Why that tablet alone Yowane-san fixed saved me enough to make what you had more than worth it!" Akida added. "I bet the repair guy at the shop would never believe a famous idol did what he couldn't!" The man threw his head back and laughed.

"I… can't wait… to tell everyone…!" Shizuka stuttered and trailed off but her sister picked it up.

"My friends at school will never believe we had you here!" Haruka gushed. "I can't wait to tell them though!"

Miku giggled and reached for the girl's tablet and propped it up on the table. "Let's see what we can do to fix that, hm?" She switched it to camera and gestured at it. "Would you snap a few pics, Shimodo-san?"

Hakuka and Shizuka squealed with delight and rushed over, and they got a few group shots of the three idols with the Shimodo sisters. It was a wonderful end to a fantastic afternoon, but it was time to say goodbye. Luka insisted on getting contact details from Akida so she could do something nice for them later, refusing the offer of a ride anywhere (they couldn't afford to be seen going where they were going). Shizuka pressed a dark blue stuffed bear into Miku's hands, insisting she wanted her to have it. Then they all hugged, and they waved, and they left with tears of joy sparkling on their cheeks. They walked for nearly twenty minutes before Miku blinked and looked down at the bear. "Oh… I forgot to ask Shizuka-chan what his name is."

"He's so cute." Haku said, reaching over to pat the bear's fuzzy head.

"Nnnnnnnnn…" Luka moaned pressing her hands to her middle. "Oh I think I'm going to explode."

"Better than starving." Miku muttered, squeezing the bear.

"That's true." Luka agreed as they took the last road out of the city heading into the hills to the west.

"Maybe I'll rename him." Miku said in a considering way, holding the bear out.

"You could wait and ask next time." Luka suggested. "We'll see them again, I plan to do something for them in return for their kindness later."

"Oh. Yeah I suppose that's okay." The shorter girl stuck the blue stuffed animal under one arm so she could adjust her skirt while they walked.

The trek up into the hills wasn't just arduous because they'd had a car last time but also because this far out of the city's protective buildings the temperature dropped sharply. Their sweaters weren't really adequate protection and they hadn't exactly dressed for a hike when they'd last left the Vocaloid Compound. Luka was at least wearing the knee high gold boots that went with her black and gold outfit, but even those had heels. Miku's leg warmers beneath her black with teal trimmed skirt were thick enough for in city, but out here was another question. They were all shivering as they made the hike that had gone by so fast in a car going three hundred kilometres per hour, now taking forever on foot. Haku was at least grateful that the sun was shining and there were only patches of snow even out here, but as the afternoon wore on into evening the sun began to sink in the sky and even that luxury would soon give out. At long last they came up the final rise and looked down at the sheer devastation they'd left in their wake mere weeks ago. The one thing none of them had thought about was the smell, and as they got closer Miku let out a gag even as Haku put a hand to her mouth.

"Oh grody!" Miku whined loudly. "No, I take that back. 'Grody' doesn't even begin to describe it."

"More like revolting." Luka murmured.

"More like super ultra nose melty!" Miku said emphatically, and the other two looked at her dubiously.

"Sometimes I swear you just pick words out at random, Miku-chin." Luka told her.

"Not random!" She objected.

"I thought the director said he was going to have the site cleaned up." Haku said looking down at the scorched ground surrounding the pile of rubble now sitting in the middle of what looked to be a caved in crater.

"Well, we only have so many clean up crews." Luka said thoughtfully as they stepped onto the blackened lot. "It looks like they burned the bodies to start with and have begun removing rubble. A cleanup task of this scale could take months."

"Ugh the burnt skin smell is going to make me yak." Miku buried her face in the teddy bear as though breathing through it would filter out the stench.

"Don't yak, you'll waste all of the delicious food we had this afternoon and who knows when we'll get more." Luka said in an admonitory tone, but the look on her face said she was straining not to herself.

"I'm trying!" Miku lifted her face from the bear, unable to breath through the stuffing. "Can we just do whatever we're here to do and go please?"

"What exactly are we here to do, Haku-chin?" Luka asked curiously, putting a hand over her mouth and nose trying to filter out the stench as Miku had.

Haku copied the gesture trying hard to breathe through her mouth. "I don't… know exactly." She admitted and when their faces fell she hurred on. "I mean I know I'm here for SOMEthing but I'm not sure what. I've been having this weird feeling recently and I've been trying hard to figure out what it means. I feel like I'm on the verge of discovering something about my abilities, about us as Vocaloids, that could change everything, and I just… I dunno, I get the feeling that something is here that can help me do that."

"But you turned the lab into a crater, Haku-chin." Miku waved the hand with the bear at the filled in sinkhole in the ground now not more than a few dozen steps from them. "It looks like there's a few hunks of building bits here and there where the foundation didn't cave, but what could possibly have survived that mammoth boom that could help us now?"

"Mammoth boom?" Luka asked. "Now you're doing it on purpose."

"I'm being serious!" Miku whined squeezing her nose tighter.

"Let's just… look around, ne?" They nodded back and Haku led the way around the edge of the crater. Getting right up to the edge, or as close as bits of the building foundation would allow, she tried to peer down into it. There wasn't a lot to see, the rubble that used to be the building had sank into the hole filling it up for the most part so there was no way to see very deeply into it. Making their way around the edge of it they poked through whatever wreckage they found on the sides of the massive hole. Some pieces of twisted metal or crumbled stonework were recognizable as building materials or hunks of car or the like. There were tires and rods and wires and all kinds of junk in a huge radius around where the vehicle warehouse once stood. WIth debris everywhere it made footing tenuous at best so they took extra time watching their steps in the fading light as the day made it's way out and the night slowly crept in. When the sun finally sank below the horizon completely as they were coming around a part of the building that was still standing and was almost big enough to still be called a wall they stopped a minute and Luka moved up beside Haku.

"Maybe we should call it a night? Miku-chin is going to freeze."

"I'm f-f-fine!" Miku's teeth chattered as she squeezed in between the two taller girls. "I can k-k-keep g-going." She said stubbornly. "I-If we don't f-find whatever i-i-it is Haku-ch-chin will b-brood all n-night."

Haku narrowed her red eyes. "I don't brood."

Luka leaned over and put a little kiss on her cheek. "Yes you do. It's adorable." Miku giggled at them.

"I don't!" Haku said defensively.

Luka gave her one of those small private smiles and started to hold a hand up to say something, but abruptly her eyes widened and her gesture turned into a point behind Haku into the wreckage of the wall beside them. "What is that?!" They all turned to look, and with the sun fading away over the horizon and the sky darkening all around it was really easy to spot the flickering light coming from beneath a massive slab of concrete tilted at an angle on the edge of the massive caved in hole.

"It looks… kinda like a headlight…?" Haku said, peering forward at the hard angled LED strip pointing up. "And… is that a tire…?" All three girls moved forward, having to climb over top of piles of rubble and a huge slab of concrete, and when they got there they gasped in surprise.

"I-It's a c-car!" Miku said, shocked. "H-How is n-not c-crushed under th-there?!"

"I don't know." Luka said, pushing at the massive slab of concrete angled atop the vehicle. "Any normal car would be." She knelt down to peer under the slab and into the darkness beyond it. "I can't quite tell, there's no light down here, but it looks like three of it's tires are on solid floor, but the back passenger one is in the air over a basement level where the cave in drops off sharply."

Haku stretched her head and neck up and around trying to see behind the big chunk of rubble. "I think there's another fallen piece of wall braced against the edge of the hole that's propping it in place. I think it's secure where it is, but if anything gives way it's going to fall."

"Th-That doesn't t-tell us h-how it hasn't b-been flattened." Miku pointed out, shivering in the cold wind. They turned around to look at her, and saw that her earlobes were literally turning blue. Immediately Haku pulled her sweater off over her head and moved forward.

"Here Miku-chin, take my sweater."

Miku tried to back up. "N-No! Y-you need it!"

Haku shook her head and managed to snag the petite girl's hand. "Just take it, please? You're turning blue." She held still sullenly as Haku pulled it down over her head and wrapped her ears with the hood, then she reached up and pressed lips that were nearly icy against Haku's.

"Th-Thank y-you, H-Haku-chin. J-Just until I w-warm up."

"Until your teeth stop chattering, love." She said, stroking Miku's smooth cheek.

"Haku-chin, I think I've figured it out." They turned around to find Luka halfway under the giant slab.

"Luka-chin!" Haku rushed forward. "Be careful, it's dangerous!"

"Nothing is shifting, it's all propped in place like you said." Her voice was muffled and they could no longer see her upper body at all as she shimmied into the rubble. "Do you have any idea what kind of car this is?" The headlight was still flashing slowly, making it almost look like a very slow strobe, but Haku realized it wasn't so much flashing as fading on and off, like the battery was going out.

"W-Well we c-can't s-see it." Miku pointed out.

"I can, and you won't even believe it." Came the muted crystalline reply. "If we can get this out of here…"

"How? We can't move the slab or everything will collapse." Haku pointed out.

"M-Maybe w-we can d-drive it out?" Miku suggested.

"If this is the vehicle I think it is, we just might." Luka called back. Then her legs disappeared and a moment later she positively let out a squee of delight. "It is! Oh my gosh it totally is!"

"W-W-What?!" Miku demanded.

"It's a Karlmann King!"

Miku's jaw positively dropped and she rushed forward. "Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?! NO WAY!" The more petite girl slipped under the massive concrete slab more easily than the taller bustier pink haired beauty had and a minute later she squeed too. "NO WAY! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOW!"

Haku couldn't contain herself. "What?! What's that?!" She felt the urge to check the internet, but even if she wanted to risk that there wasn't a datastream in the air right then, not this far out of the city.

"It's the world's most expensive luxury SUV." Luka called back. "It's worth well into the millions, and it was designed as a pricy version of a Hummer some years ago, only it was also made to be military grade on the outside. There were only like fifteen of them in the world ever made."

"It d-doesn't look f-f-fully armored though." Miku said, then a moment later she amended her statement. "Wait, I s-see the a-armor m-m-mounts. It h-had them o-originally, b-b-but some have been r-removed and r-replaced."

"Replaced by what…" Luka mused. "I can't see anything in here.

"What's it's towing capacity? Do you really think it can shift this slab?" Haku asked, bending down to stick her head under the slab. She could just see her girlfriends' feet under the car by the driver side wheel.

"I think the only reason it survived the explosion was because it was on the outer edge of the building and had some armor." Luka replied carefully. "But even that doesn't explain it fully, there has to be more to it. Buuuuuuuuuuuut…" She put one booted foot up on the step rail and hoisted herself up and Haku lost sight of her feet. A moment later her voice came back. "The lights in the cab are doing the same thing as the headlights, fading on and off. It doesn't have much battery power I'd say, but if we can get the engine turned over the alternator should kick in, and then yeah, I think it could shove this slab out of the way."

"I-I-Is that s-smart though?" Miku asked. "I-I-If the slab sh-shifts the wrong w-w-way, it would p-p-push the SUV b-back into the h-hole."

"Not to mention the chunk of floor it's sitting on right now." Haku said. "The counterforce from the wheels spinning will push it down and back too as it accelerates upward. We'd only have one shot at it, and there's a good chance we'd go down with it if things slid out from under it the wrong way."

"I guess that depends on if you want to try it or not, Haku-chin." Luka replied. "Is this what you were here for, d'you think?"

Haku tilted her head and considered the question, staring at the mean looking treads on the tires in the fading light of the evening. The blinking headlight almost seemed to be talking to her. Instinct and emotion… she let her feelings stretch out… "What's inside it?" She called.

"I can't tell from here, but if we can get inside we can look." She called back, and her booted feet came back into view as she stepped down to try the door. "It's not locked, but there's not enough room on this side to get the door open.

"I'll try the passenger side." Haku said, shimmying her way beneath the slab all the way now. There wasn't enough room to slide around the front end of the vehicle, but the massive SUV sat so high there was plenty of clearance for her to slide underneath. "I can get passed under it." Miku and Luka's faces came into view as they bent down to look under the vehicle to look at her as she slid around the front passenger tire under the thing and toward the other side. When she got there she pulled herself up and glanced around, then had to fight off a sudden wave of vertigo as the blackness yawned wide beneath her. "Whoooooaaaaaaa…." She grabbed at nothing in the blackness and for a moment thought she might tip over when her fingers met only empty air, but she spun back around and caught the passenger door's handle.

"H-Haku-chin!" Miku called right atop Luka's "Are you okay?!"

"I'm alright, there's just not much floor over here, and a sheer drop. But I think I can get in." The passenger door came open with a click and she stepped up into the vehicle, using the handholds to pull herself upward and into the massive car. Luka was right, the cabin lights were all fading in and out in time with the headlights. There was power, but it was fading. Fumbling in the dark she found the dome light and switched it on, and even though it was fading in and out like all there rest it gave her enough illumination to work with. She shut the door and next came the window controls, and when the windows slid down Miku and Luka's heads popped up over the edge on the driver's side.

"What's in there, Haku-chin?" Luka wanted to know, and Haku climbed from the front area into the back section of the rig. There were enough seats for five or seven people, but… she let out a gasp of shock and Luka's crystal voice came sharply worried, "Haku-chin?!"

"It's so roomy!" Haku called back, and heard sighs of relieved annoyance from her girlfriends. "Sorry, I'm just… surprised, this is nuts. Aaaaah!" She squealed as she saw it. "There's a laptop terminal in here! And… oh wow!"

"W-W-What?!" Miku cried out.

"There's an entire diagnostic station in here!" Haku reached down and found cords looped up by the etched keyboard and touch mousepad, and glanced at the seat beside it. "Whatever this thing had in here originally, it was taken out and replaced with Vocaloid diagnostic hardware."

"I think these SUVs originally came with a TV and game console…" Luka said dryly.

"Well my parents must have modified this thing…" She stopped for a minute and looked back. "Why would they leave it here…?"

"Wh-Who c-cares?!" Miku called back. "L-Let's just t-take it and g-g-get out of h-here! We can f-f-figure that part out l-l-later!"

Haku climbed back up to the front area and looked at her girlfriends in earnest. "This is what we needed, this is what I wanted to find." The emotion in her voice took them aback, and blue and green eyes widened at her. "But I can't ask you to risk your lives for this. Move back outside, and I'll try to get it clear."

"No!" Luka and Miku cried at the same time.

Haku shook her head stubbornly. "No really, you can't-"

"NO!" They cut her off again and it was her turn for a startled widening of the eyes. Immediately Luka began climbing up the side of the massive vehicle and crawled in through the window, forcing Haku to move back or be sat on. "Absolutely not, Haku-chin. No way."

"N-No WAY!" Miku echoed emphatically, waiting only long enough for Luka to get out of the way before climbing up and in behind her. "W-We l-lost you t-twice before. It's n-n-not happening again."

"But I don't want-" Haku started to say then cut off with a little squeak as Luka's lips came down firmly on hers. The pink haired beauty tasted vaguely of caramel apple from that afternoon and instinctively Haku lifted her arms to go up around her shoulders at the rough kiss. Luka pressed in, full of need, full of fierce loving insistence, and Haku felt her head beginning to swim before the other girl pulled back eliciting gasps from them both.

"No, Haku-chin." She panted firmly. "We agreed, remember? We're all in this together."

Haku gasped and wiped at her lips with the back of one hand, then nodded. "O-Okay…" She started to sit up but Miku plowed into her over top of Luka's lap, and she lost herself in another firework inducing kiss, her senses flaring with the pretty green eyed girl until her already shortened breath became nearly non existent. When Miku finally leaned back Haku gazed up at her through hazy eyes, and Miku panted while staring back down at her expectantly.

"W-Well?!" She demanded.

"Miku-chin…" Haku breathed.

"Y-Yes?!"

Haku hesitated for a moment, back of one hand at her mouth again, then sighed. "Your lips are like icicles." The petite girl's eyes grew big once more and she put her hands to her mouth too. Luka cracked up in a fit of giggles, putting her own hands to her mouth next, and before long they were all caught in a fit of hysterical laughing. Haku was starting to feel a little stifled by this overprotective attitude they were having toward her these past weeks, but she leaned up to the women who meant so much to her and put an arm around either of them. "I love you, Miku-chin. I love you, Luka-chin."

"I love you, Haku-chin." They both breathed in either of her ears.

She leaned back from them and looked from one to the other with an intent look. "I promised you I would genius us out of this situation. That starts here and now. We can do this."

They stared at her then traded looks with each other. "My goodness, Haku-chin, where did this force of personality come from?" Luka said teasingly.

"Y-Yeah, i-it's n-not like you." Miku agreed.

"It came from needing to protect the women I love." She told them, then nudged at their hips. "Now trade me places and I'll drive us out of here."

"You want one of us too-" Luka started, but Haku cut her off.

"No, I need to do this." They nodded and traded places with her, Miku shifting into the back and Luka taking the front passenger seat as Haku climbed into the driver's side. They made sure the doors were all shut and got the windows rolled back up. They paused a moment as Haku looked around in the front of the car. "... none of this matters if we can't find the keys though…"

Luka pointed at the dash, "It's not there, but the power hasn't given out yet. Can't you just…?" She trailed off, and Haku blinked at her.

"As long as I don't connect to the internet… it should be safe." She turned to look at the dash controls, tilted her head, and let her internal cybernetic network search for a signal. Finding and connecting wasn't hard but she ran into a firewall protecting the huge car's computer more intense the anything she'd ever seen. She let out a grunt of surprise and Luka put a hand on her knee.

"I think…" She said carefully. "I can actually SEE your connection." Her gaze was somewhere between Haku and the dash, and Miku echoed the sentiment from the back.

"Y-Yeah, m-me t-too." She .

"There's a really strong encryption." She told them, and they looked at her in concern.

"Can you break it?" Luka asked.

"Well… It's what I was designed for, right?" She replied, and they nodded at her slowly. Haku leaned back in the driver's seat and let her vision fill with her 3D overlay. Icons and images flew passed her in her mind's eye, pixelated mosaics representing the security code to the vehicle's computer, particles streaming between them and a rotating sphere she conjured up to represent her own cyberbrain. She could feel her mind reeling as her CPU usage kicked up, almost thought she could feel her Vocaloid Chip overclocking, but of course that was silly. Her parents had built her as the ultimate cyber weapon, and now it was time to put that to the test. That it was against her own creators in this fashion seemed to her like poetic justice. It seemed to her to take forever as she directed data bits, but abruptly the scrolling mosaic stabilized and the password cracked and came into view, the characters 'prismatic479' coming into view for her. The network cleared, her vision returned to normal, and she looked around at her girlfriends. They blinked at her.

"Your cleared so fast." Luka said wonderingly. "Did you get it?" For answer Haku tilted her head and used her connection to the start the vehicle. The lights in the cab all momentarily blacked out completely but then after a second or two the engine roared to life. The other two jumped a bit.

"Oh my God, th-that is still s-so spooky when you d-d-do that." Miku said.

"Brace yourselves." Haku told them, and they all clicked seatbelts into place. "What can you tell me about this thing from memory, Luka-chin? I don't want to connect to the internet but I need numbers if I'm going to calculate trajectory, velocity, acceleration, vector-"

"Haku-chin j-j-just floor it!" Miku waved a hand at the front window.

Luka sighed and shook her head. "I don't know if that's the best way, but…"

"S-S-Sometimes you j-just have to h-hit the gas and g-go!" Miku added insistently.

Luka and Haku traded looks and the pink haired beauty shrugged. "I don't have specific details anyway, just best guesses. And besides, do you really have all the data you'd need on the structural state of the building to make those calculations work with general guesses?"

Haku stared at them for a moment longer, then turned toward to grip the steering wheel in both hands. "Hit the gas…"

"Punch it!" Miku called out, and Haku slammed her foot down on the gas. The vehicle lurched forward hard and everything seemed to happen at once. Just as they'd thought the floor slid beneath them and began to give way, but the slab of concrete in front of them rotated sideways and began to tilt toward the gaping opening below. It wasn't completely loose as they'd thought and as the massive SUV surged against it whatever rebar bits were still anchoring it in place bent and it swung over and down. There was a loud groan of stone on stone as the bit of building foundation everything had been propped against gave way and for just a moment they were moving forward and backward at the same time as the bit of garage floor they were on fell back and down even as they drove up it. All three girls shrieked in terror but abruptly the moment passed as they launched off the falling piece and onto solid ground. Their momentum carried them across the lot a good few dozen meters bouncing over rubble and debris before Haku got the wheel turned and hit the brake. They all looked back at the part of the ruined warehouse building they'd just been in a moment before as it gave way and collapsed with a loud rumble of broken construction materials. They all turned to look at each other with expressions mixed somewhere between shock and relief, their hearts hammering in their chests.

"I think…" Luka swallowed hard. "I think that was more dangerous than we thought…"

"Hoooooooooooow did that even work?!" Miku gasped, the adrenaline warming her for the moment.

"Must have been this thing's weight." They blinked at her and she shook her head. "This is the biggest SUV I've ever seen, it has to weight like five thousand kilos. If we hadn't been so close to the edge we never would have made that gap when it formed."

"Well… we did make it!" Miku cheered.

"Let's get out of here." Luka leaned back in her seat with a sigh of relief. At that moment the power flickered and the engine throttled down so low everything almost cut out, but then it all came back up again and the lights resumed their rhythmic fading in and out.

"The power could die any minute." Haku said. "I guess we'll need to see how far we can get before then." They nodded in agreement, and Haku pulled the giant beast if a vehicle out onto the road.


	29. Vocaloid Academy Chapter 29

Letting out a sigh of extreme frustration Haku let her hands drop down in front of her, dropping the wires she held to the floor of the massive SUV they'd taken from her parent's destroyed lab the night before. It wasn't making any sense, things should be working but they just weren't. She ran her eye over the wires again as she'd done dozens of times this morning already but for the life of her she just couldn't spot the problem. There was power, so why wasn't the diagnostic terminal coming on? As far as they could tell the interior's luxury components like the Playstation 4 and DVD player and the like had all been removed in favor of more scientific equipment. The terminal with an etched keyboard and mouse touchpad had been set up where the gaming console had been and wired to the TV to use as a monitor, and the satellite system was still in place, probably for internet access. The mini fridge and bar were still there but were empty, and Haku couldn't see why nothing was getting power. She'd had some hope that the laptop would be fine but it wouldn't turn on, and had no power cord in evidence for it so she couldn't charge it at a normal wall socket, and while there was a docking station built into the terminal in the vehicle, that didn't help without power either. The whole point in going out to search the wreckage had been in the hopes of finding a laptop or something that might have been thrown clear of the blast so she could get access to Vocaloid diagnostic software, and they'd found it, but… she sighed again, glancing at up into the front of the Karlmann King. The cab lights were all on, but fading in and out as though they too were having power problems, but the power had never gone out completely, even when they'd been driving it back to the abandoned industrial building they'd been hiding in since they'd been on the run from the government. It had even stayed on the entire night; the three girls had slept inside the car because it had become toasty warm in the drive and when they'd pulled in late the previous night they'd been so tired they'd simply fallen asleep inside it. She thought they'd have burned the gas out but apparently they hadn't. She'd allowed her connection to the vehicle's computer systems to shut the engine off but the flickering power stayed on and she couldn't explain it.

The side door pulled open behind her and Luka put her head in. "Maybe you should come out and take a break, Haku-chin." The pink haired beauty suggested. "You've been at it all morning."

"I want to figure this out…" She muttered at the wires she'd been tracing with her eye.

"Well… me too, but so far we haven't gotten anywhere." Luka pointed out. When Haku didn't move though Luka sighed and climbed into the vehicle with her and pulled the door shut. It was still warm inside the huge car and the winter air outside had turned particularly icy the night before. Another mystery; why was it so warm inside the SUV? This power system made no sense. Luka sat in the rearmost seat and patted the one next to her. "Haku-chin come sit with me. Please?" Haku sighed and shifted around so she could sit with her girlfriend, and Luka put an arm around her and pulled her snowy white head down to her shoulder. Haku muttered at the interruption but the cuddle was nice and she rested her head on the offered shoulder. "You're pushing yourself too hard, it's okay to take a rest for a few minutes."

"I need to figure this out." Haku mumbled. "You and Miku-chin are counting on me."

"We are, but there's only so much we can do right this minute. That's why Miku-chin is out looking for things for us."

"I know." She said, then sighed again. "I could be out looking too. We need tools as much as food, we can't really get into the innards of this great hulk of a vehicle without tools."

"Miku-chin knows what we need, and there's no sense risking more than one of us." Luka replied carefully, but Haku could read between the lines. Risk HER, she meant. Miku and Luka's overprotectiveness of her was getting absurd and she was starting to resent it, but she didn't say anything about it right that minute. Instead she glanced up slightly to ask a different question.

"Did you find anything below?"

Luka shook her head. She'd stayed behind instead of going out with Miku to help look over the SUV, her mechanics background giving her the knowledge she needed to start with the mechanical aspects of it, popping the hood and crawling underneath it to inspect it. "Nothing looks really out of place that I can see from a visual inspection; I need to start getting into the guts of it, which I need tools for."

Haku let her head slump against the other girl again. It was so frustrating, having everything right here but not being able to do anything with it. She'd been so sure that once they found whatever they were looking for everything would just sort of come together and work out for them, but aside from having a warm place to be and not freeze in the winter air anymore their situation hadn't changed much. Well… she supposed that wasn't such an insignificant thing after all. Since being on the run from the government their bellies had been empty and their skin had been icy more often than not, and having this mysterious vehicle keep them warm eliminated one of those problems at the very least. She supposed she should feel more grateful for what they had managed so far. "At least we're warm now…" She muttered trying to express it.

"That's to the good." Luka agreed, and squeezed Haku around the shoulders. "The rest will come, we just have to be patient."

"I'm worried about Miku-chin though, she's out in the cold."

"She has all three of our sweatshirts." Luka giggled, and she was right. They had the warm car, so they'd made the petite girl bundle up as well as hide her light blue hair beneath her clothes and inside the hoods of the sweaters.

Haku nodded slowly and her gaze gradually drifted back to the wires she'd pulled out of the wall panel that she'd been tracing, following them with her eyes from here even as she leaned against Luka. In spite of her need to figure this out she found her attention split between the puzzle of the vehicle and how soft her girlfriend felt to lean against. Luka was so feminine, so beautiful, it was bliss just being able to take a moment like this. It might even have been a turn on if she didn't feel so gross from wearing the same clothes for a week. She didn't know what they could do about that particular issue right then though. From this angle with her head to the side she could even see a few cracks behind the panel she's pulled open. A couple of the thicker wires went down into those cracks it seemed, and through therm she could see… a glow? Pulsing like the rest of the lights? She narrowed her eyes at the crack, considering it. It was hard to tell because it was daylight out, but it looked like…

"Does that look like light coming out of there to you?" Haku asked, pointing at the gap in the side panel.

Luka squinted at it for a moment then nodded. "Kind of like a pale blue…?"

Haku slid out of her seat and got down on all fours to peer into the crack, and she could definitely see the pulsing pale blue glow now, but not where it was coming from. She moved over toward where the mini fridge was against the back of the seats and felt around on the carpet. "I think there's something under here." She said. Luka got down on her hands and knees too and together they fiddled around until the blue eyed girl got her fingers in a crack where the carpet met the wall.

"The carpet isn't attached here, just tucked in neatly." She said, and unhooked it and started pulling it back. They had to replace it then open the side door and climb out into the biting cold of the abandoned building yard before they could actually pull it back though, rolling it up toward the back seats to reveal the floor of the inside of the vehicle.

"A panel?" Haku said, eyeing a giant square section where a seem clearly showed a panel.

Luka frowned at it, "This isn't stock manufacturing, this has been altered." She leaned in to trace the slight seam with a finger gently. "The floor was cut out and modified to have a hatch here." Sliding her hand along the edge she found a slightly wider gap and hooked her fingers into it and pulled up. The panel swung open on an internal hinge and the pulsing glow became brighter, reflecting off the metal of panel as well as themselves, and both of their mouths fell open.

"What is that?!" Luka exclaimed.

"A power core?!" Haku said, leaning forward intently as Luka made a little space for her.

"Power core? What power core?" Said a chime like voice behind them, and they whirled around to find Miku trotting up to them with a bag tucked under one arm and a hard plastic case with a handle held in the other hand.

"Haku-chin found a light pulsing in time with the rest of the SUV coming from a crack in the floor, and when we moved the carpet we found a panel that shouldn't have been there. And under the panel…" She gestured and stepped back so Miku could see, and the petite girl's green eyes went wide.

"Wow! That's some futuristic looking design right there!" She tried to reach up to the front passenger door with the hand with the bag in it but couldn't reach. Rather than put something down she just kept straining for it and Luka sighed and reached passed her to pull the door open for her. Miku giggled at her and set the bag on the front seat and the case on the front floor, then looked back around the inside. "What is it?"

Haku had her head practically in beside the power core, tracing wires with her eyes not wanting to touch anything. "It's a V-Core." She said. She was certain, looking at it, it couldn't be anything else.

"V-Core?!" Miku gasped. "Like the ones in our chests that daddy designed?"

Haku shook her head and pointed at it. "It's bigger than the ones in our chests, I think this one must have been an earlier version, or maybe designed intentionally to be a bigger power source. Either way though, it's the same sort of template as far as specs go. I still have all my father's files in my internal storage, and this looks identical except for scale." She shifted her gaze up toward the front, trying to see in under the floor panels. "There are power cables strung everywhere, I think it's powering the entire vehicle."

"You mean it's electric?!" Miku sounded absolutely mind blown. "The engine is so loud for an electric model though!"

"That must be why we didn't have gas problems…" Luka said thoughtfully, then glanced passed Miku into the front seat. "Did you bring tools, Miku-chin?"

"What?" Miku turned around. "Oh yeah! And a treat for us!" She snatched the bag and opened it up, giving a little shiver despite the three sweatshirts she was wearing. She reached in and pulled out a couple of bottles of tea and some meat pies. "Teeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaa!" She exclaimed in a reverent tone, cradling a bottle of jasmine to her chest. "Ohmigosh tea!"

"Where did you get tea?" Luka asked as she cracked open the plastic case and looked in at a full set of gleaming wrenches and sockets. "And brand new tools?! Miku-chin!"

Miku let out a giggle. "I let some guy take pictures of me." That brought both Luka and Haku's heads around fast enough that Haku bumped hers on the edge of the car and let out a squeak of pain. She reached up to rub at her head and her girlfriends glanced at her but she winced at them and asked the obvious question.

.

"That's dangerous. What… kind of pictures, Miku-chin…?"

The petite girl waved a hand dismissively then cracked open her bottle of tea. "Nothing like that, jeez! I was walking along trying to think of where I could possibly get ahold of tools and I was crossing a public park and trying to ignore how totally cold I am and as I'm spacing out I stepped in a patch of snow that came up over my shoe-" she lifted her foot to show her low shoes without pausing her flow of words, "-and I screamed because it was soooooooo cooooooooold on my ankle and as I was shaking the snow off my foot my hoodie slipped down and some guy recognized me and asked me if I'd pose for his shoot and I thought he was a creep trying to take pervy pictures at first but it turned out it was totally some professional like winter park thing going on and he had cameras and tripods and flash umbrellas and everything and there were a couple of other people nearby and he said he'd pay me a little per set in cash and was all apologetic cuz I'm famous and stuff and he was worried I'd turn it down because it wasn't much money compared to what I would make doing a show but I totally like pretended I would do it just cuz I'm so nice and sweet like but really all I could think was if I hung out long enough it'd almost be like I'd had a part time job for the day or something and that's totes what happened and I made enough to buy some cheapo tools AND GET TEA OHMIGOSH!" Haku thought the only reason Miku's bubbly flow of words cut off was because she wanted to sip at her little treat.

"That was kind of risky, wasn't it?" Luka asked. "What if those cameras had active net connection and had been tapped? Or what if someone in the park had been an agent?"

Miku reached into the bag and took out a bottle of slightly sweet black tea and shoved it at the pink haired beauty. "Oh just enjoy your stupid tea will you?" Luka stared at her but she took the tea; they couldn't be wasteful of anything at this point. "I know it was risky, but I mean, it was either that or beg right? Or wander around for who knows how long hoping to luck into something else? If you guys can fix this lumbering behemoth it'll be worth it." She slapped the front fender with a light clang of metal.

Luka ran her eye over it with a sigh, "I suppose you're right, just… don't do that again, that's way too public."

Miku rolled her eyes but agreed with a grunt as she sipped at her tea some more, and after a minute Luka opened hers too. Haku turned her head to lean back in and peer at the power core. "Haku-chin!" She heard Miku's chime like voice from behind her. "Stop that! Come have tea with us!"

"I think the core is damaged." Haku called back to her. She heard shuffling and a moment later Luka's face joined hers at the core, and she pointed. "Look here, there are dark spots along it and the housing has some scoring inward."

"It looks kind of like electrical damage." Luka said. "That's weird, there's nothing like that on the outside of it anywhere on the body. Not even that massive concrete slab we shoved over with it scratched it."

"TEA!" Miku shouted. "HAKU-CHIN! LUKA-CHIN! TEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAA!" They turned around again right as she stomped her foot, then they traded looks with each other and sighed. Luka raised an eyebrow and tilted her head up toward the cab of the SUV, and Haku nodded. She stood up and moved over to Miku and took the shorter girl's hand in hers, then stepped up to the front passenger door while Luka pulled the rear door closed then walked around to the driver seat and got it. Haku stepped backwards up into the passenger seat while Miku blinked up at her then she pulled the pretty light blue haired girl up by the hand behind her. There was easily enough room for them both and Haku pulled the door shut then took Miku by the hips, rotated her around, and pulled her down into her lap. Miku sat with a short squeak then let out a giggle and cuddled into Haku's arms. Then she took the remaining tea out of the bag, a green tea sweetened with honey rather than sugar, and held it up in offering. Haku put a little kiss on her neck which sent a shiver down her spine that had nothing to do with the weather and accepted the tea.

"Thank you Miku-chin." She said, and Miku blushed and let out another giggle before passing out the meat pies. It was very clearly convenience store food but none of them cared in their current situation, and they sat enjoying the warmth of the car while they ate together and sipped at their tea.

Haku was completely content to snuggle with Miku as she sipped her tea. The younger idol was just as soft as Luka was and she found the same sort of bliss here as she had earlier, but it was slightly different because she was the taller of them and Miku fit against her the same way she herself fit against Luka. Which made her stop and think about that for a moment. Miku was the smallest so always fit against both of the other two, and Luka was the tallest so they always fit against her. She wondered if that was sad for the two of them…? Did they wish they could switch sides sometimes? Or were they happy to be the cuddler or cuddlee respectively? She almost wanted to ask, but the notion seemed silly to her. She didn't want them to think she was being silly, so she just sat there cuddling her other girlfriend and nibbling on her meager lunch. For her part Miku seemed perfectly content to sit back against Haku, even happily wiggling her hips and legs a little bit every now and then. This again seemed like it might have been a turn on if she didn't feel so gross. They needed baths… the thought of being clean and submerged in hot water was absolutely heavenly. She was distracted by the thought of the being clean when pain she'd felt before suddenly lanced through her head. She reached a hand up to clutch at it and made a little moan as to her eyes red warning letters popped up in her cybervision which read 'Warning: Programming conflict, driver error, critical system incompatibility'. For a moment the pain was so intense her vision went cross eyed and she was dimly aware of the other two calling her name with worry. All she could do was clutch at Miku until the pain finally receded after an eternity or two had passed, or what seemed like it. When she looked up she shook her head at their worried faces. "It's… just a headache, that's all…" she lied as the warning message faded away. She had to get that diagnostic terminal working...

They nodded slowly still looking concerned and Haku felt guilty fibbing to them, but she still didn't see a point in worrying them about it, and after a bit they resumed their little meal, and Luka's expression grew speculative. "So if this rig is powered by one of our cores," The pink haired beauty said thoughtfully, "And that core is damaged, that would explain why it never really turns off and why it didn't have or need gas, and the damage to the core is why everything is all flickering."

"It also means this massive armored SUV was heavily modified by my parents." Haku put in, then stopped for a moment as Miku put a little bit of meat to her mouth with an 'Aaaaaaaaaahhhnn!' sound. She loved it when her girlfriends fed her…

"But why build a vehicle like this?" Luka asked. "It seems purpose built to contain or transport Vocaloids."

"Maybe it was." Haku said with a level look. "They were coming to get me after all."

"The last we saw of them was them dragging the witch toward a car when you totes fireballed the place." Miku took a napkin out of the bag and wiped delicately at her slim fingers. "Was it this one? Or another one?"

"It has to have been another one, or we wouldn't have found this one there." Luka reasoned, accepting a napkin held out by Miku.

"The question then is, why didn't they come back for this car later? It's been two weeks." Haku wanted to tap her chin but her hands were full of Miku right then so she just squeezed the other girl, earning her a giggle in return. "I don't see why they left it, unless they had something more pressing to deal with…?"

"Or they thought it was destroyed in the blast?" Luka hazarded a guess, but she didn't seem completely convinced of that.

"That seems sloppy…" Haku replied.

"Well maybe it's true. I mean it was nearly flattened right?" Miku glanced around at the car's interior. "I mean except for the whole totally not been being scratched part…?"

"Except that the core is damaged." Haku pointed out. "How was the core inside the SUV scorched but nothing outside was."

"It was." Miku said, and they looked at her curiously. "What didn't you see it?" She asked. "Here look." She threw the door open and hopped out, and Haku only had a moment to regret the lack of warm girl in her lap before the blast of chilly outside air hit her. She shifted to drop out of the cab to the ground even as Luka got out her side and came around. Miku pointed at a part just on the lowest edge of the rear fender, and around the wheel wells a bit, and at the back bottom edge. "Here, and here, and here. See the scorched burny marks? Like soot except totally not "

Haku leaned closer to peer at them. Structurally everything was fine, but Miku was right, there were darker black streaks on the black metal, like shadows at midnight. "They look like the same electrical discharge marks as the core has."

"Maybe it's shields totally failed?!" Miku said emphatically, and the other two leveled looks at her

"Really Miku-chin? Shields?" Luka said flatly.

Miku waved an arm. "We just recently found out we're a whole new race of futuristic cyborgs, Luka-chin! Do you really think we can rule anything out at this point?!"

"I think we can rule out shields." The pink haired beauty returned in that same glassy voice.

"Maybe not shields…" Haku said, having leaned her head into the wheel well to look up into it. "But something. There are… things down here." She brought up her father's notes she'd downloaded from the lab into her 3D view on her mind's eye and began scanning them.

"What things?" Luka asked.

"Shield generators?!" Miku gushed excitedly.

"Well they certainly deflected something, anyway." She leaned back out of the wheel well to smirk up at the other two, but they only started at her blankly. "... the explosion of the lab?" She tried after a moment, but they blinked and shrugged. " _Deflector shields…?_ " She tried again, and understanding bloomed in their eyes.

Miku tilted her head back and groaned loudly, and Luka just shook her head in disgust. "No." She said. "No, you can't have that one."

"What? Why not?" Haku pouted.

Luka leaned down to the tire to get a look for herself up under the wheel well. "Just no."

"Well I thought it was funny…" Haku muttered dolefully.

Miku patted her arm consolingly. "It was very… witty, Haku-chin." She just giggled when Haku stuck her tongue out at her.

"I have no idea what these even are." Luka said tapping at the fender near one of the little diodes.

"Me either. There's nothing about them in my father's files." Haku said, letting the 3D icons superimposed over her vision drop away.

"Maybe the tub's computer has something about it?' Miku suggested, kicking a tire.

"The computer's data is kinda scrambled." Haku said, reaching out with her mind to establish a network connection to the thing. She hadn't connected earlier as tracing power cords hadn't seemed to need it. "But if there was an electric surge from the core for some reason that was severe enough to damage it then maybe it overloaded these diodes."

"Could have fried some of the wiring inside too." Luka said to a nod from Haku. She moved over to retrieve the tools Miku had brought then glanced around. Whatever she was looking for she didn't find, and muttering something about wheels she reached behind herself to tuck her flowing pink hair down the back of her shirt to keep it from getting too dirty before kneeling down to the edge of the vehicle, then flipping over and shimmying her way underneath. A few moments later ratcheting noises could be heard.

"If you two are going to get back to work, maybe I should go back out?" Miku suggested. "There's still more daylight, I could try to find us… something?"

"I could go with you." Haku said, but Miku shook her head.

"No that's okay Haku-chin. There's no sense uhm… in both of us going. Besides, you're the best one to work on the computer, ne?" She was right of course but that only made Haku chafe harder under the constraint of overprotectiveness. Something of it must have shown on her face, either that or she visibly bristled enough to be seen, and Miku blinked in surprise and reached up a hand to brush at Haku's cheek. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing." Haku said and started to turn around back to the car, but she felt a hand catch her wrist and Miku turned her back around to face her.

"You said we should always talk to each other." Miku said with a stem look on her face. "That was your idea, that we shouldn't keep things to ourselves anyone." Haku winced at having her own words flung back at her, casting her gaze aside.

"I'm not sure this is the time for this…" she said evasively.

"What better time?" Miku demanded waving an arm at the empty abandoned building lot they were squatting in. "It's not like we're going anywhere." Still she hesitated and the petite girl shifted the hand on Haku's wrist down to squeeze her hand. "Please?"

Hesitant red eyes met ernest green for long moments before Haku let out a sigh. "I think you're both being too overprotective of me." She said in a quiet voice, embarrassed at her feelings for some reason, but she couldn't make herself talk louder. "I'm not made of glass, but you're both trying to avoid exposing me to danger and it's getting on my nerves."

Miku blinked at her for a moment in surprise, and the genuine expression made Haku wonder if she'd even realized they'd been doing it. "Well… I mean… I guess maybe we have, a little, but…"

"But what?" Haku asked. "I can help. I can do more."

"You are helping, Haku-chin." Luka said, and they turned to find her sitting up from under the edge of the huge SUV. "Neither of us are as good with computers as you are."

"That's not what I mean. I can do more out and about too. I know better what I need for tools and supplies, right?"

"Well maybe… but I still think…" Miku started but trailed off.

"What?" Haku prompted, her silvery voice still quiet. "You think what?" Miku's jaw worked as she tried to come up with a reason but Haku could see she didn't have one. "You don't know, do you?" Miku's cheeks turned scarlet and she found her voice, but her naturally chime like tones were stained with emotion.

"We've almost lost you twice now, Haku-chin!" She clenched her fists as she grew upset, her light blue strands shaking as she tossed her head.

"And that somehow makes it okay for you two to risk yourselves while sheltering me?" Haku asked plaintively, her quiet tones contrasting with Miku's boiling emotional state.

"That's not what she's saying, Haku-chin." Ever the mediator Luka interjected between the two. "She just means she's… rather we… don't want to go through that pain again. We love you too much."

"Yeah!" Miku pointed at Luka. "Yeah that!" She shifted her hands down to tangle them in the sweatshirt outermost on her slim frame. She wrung the fabric in her hands, casting her eyes down. "When you were gone… it hurt. It hurt so bad… like there was a hole inside me that felt like it was going to consume me." Tears sprang to her eyes just with the memory of it. "I couldn't breathe… I couldn't eat… everything seemed all greyed out…" She looked up intently, green eyes sparkling damply. "If Luka-chin hadn't been there sharing that pain with me I don't think I could have handled it!"

Haku felt an urge to hug her girlfriend but she couldn't make herself move just yet. Her already quiet voice dropped to a whisper the other two head to strain to hear. "I know… I went through the same thing… but I didn't have either of you with me to help me with it… I had to deal with it alone… in a cold dark abandoned laboratory..." she paused a moment as that particular thought sank into her girlfriend's heads.

Miku put the back of her hand to her mouth and gasped a sob at the thought of Haku having to go through what she herself had just condemned. "I'm… I'm so sorry… Haku-chin…" she reached out for her but Haku pulled back a bit not ready for a hug yet. Miku flinched and dropped her arms.

"It could have been any of us." Haku said softly to make her point. "Circumstances aside, it could be any of us, at any time."

"But it wasn't any of us." Luka said just as softly from her spot against the SUV. "It was you, twice."

"If we're going to make this three way relationship work, we can't just be equal in everything except for some things when it gets hard or inconvenient." Haku said pointedly. "It has to be completely equal at all times, or as close as we can get it."

"We live dangerous lives." Luka said slowly in answer to that. "I guess… the reality is… any of us at any time could face that loss again…" That was a sobering thought, and all three of them blanched at the idea of their tripod breaking permanently.

"Is it worth it to you?" Haku asked them in that whisper again. "Am I… worth risking… to keep?"

Miku's pained expression suddenly became one of bitter tears, and that steel Hatsune core inside her poked out of it's silk sheath for a moment. "How dare you." She demanded, and it was Haku's turn to wince. Miku took a step forward and flung her arms around her, wrapping her arms around her shoulders and squeezing tightly, almost too tightly. "Of course you're worth it. How can you even ask that?"

Haku was about to respond but abruptly she felt sandwiched as Luka hugged her from behind just as hard. "We're sorry, Haku-chin. We love you."

"We love you so much it hurts." Miku added.

Haku let out a gasp. "I… can't breathe…" They pulled back with a jerk just enough so she could cough a breath but they kept hugging her. "I love you both just as much." She told them once she'd gotten her breath back. "Believe me, I understand, I want all three of us to be together more than anything else. I'm just… trying to make sure we're all… aware of the same things." They nodded and their group hug turned in to trading kisses. Those kisses grew hotter and more insistent and after a minute Haku felt a familiar heat rising inside her despite how gross she felt. When a break can came for the purpose of breathing she looked to the shorter girl. "Miku-chin… how much money do you have left?"

"Mmmmmmm…?" She glanced into the sweater pocket. "Enough for a few things, if we're careful." With a glance up and a tilt of her head she asked, "Why?"

"Enough for three admissions to a bathhouse…?" She asked hopefully, and their eyes widened at the idea.

"Oh! Uhm… yeah, I think so!" She replied, peering into her pocket again.

"Oh that sounds absolutely heavenly." Luka said wistfully.

"I'll go see if I can find one that isn't to far from here while you two work on the car!" Miku said excitedly and turned to dash off, but Luka stopped her.

"Wait, let's all go later, together."

"Kaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay." Miku chimed.

They all looked between each other and shared an unspoken moment just gazing into each other's eyes, then the pink haired beauty nodded at the massive vehicle. "Come on." Haku nodded and they turned back to their tasks.

Over the next two hours they each worked on different parts of the big black luxury SUV, Luka underneath it ratcheting away as she checked over the mechanical workings looking for broken parts or anything out of the ordinary, Miku poking at the interior panels, and Haku inside examining the damaged V-Core and tracing power cables while simultaneously interfacing with the computer, trying to reconstruct data logs to find out about it. Just as she was getting frustrated with the hardware she made a breakthrough with the computer, and made a little "Ah!" sound as a data log formed in her mind's eye and she scanned it. The sound made Luka call out to her from beneath the floor, "What is it? Find something?"

"Damage logs." Haku replied, scanning over the data. "It looks like this vehicle is entirely run by the V-Core and a computer so advanced it almost makes me think of an A.I. except there isn't a personality present. This log shows what's been damaged and how though."

"Really?" Miku asked curiously from beside her.

Luka's head coming up from the edge of the side door. "Does it say how to fix it too?"

"Well, it looks like some things aren't so much damaged as incomplete?" Haku hazarded a guess at some of the data she was seeing. "The armor is apparently some sort of nanite shell formed by nanites and biometric fluid deployed by this diodes we found. But the armor isn't complete. This log shows concussive damage to the armor by the explosion, and a power feedback from the incomplete armor which damaged the diodes, the cables, and the V-Core itself." She focused her eyes to look at Luka. "You should both connect to the computer too, you could see all of this like I am."

Miku nodded but Luka tilted her head and blinked. "I suppose I could…" she allowed.

"Why always so hesitant?" Haku wanted to know. She'd asked before when her beautiful idol had balked at using her abilities as a cyborg, but she'd never gotten an answer, but now Luka seemed willing to say.

"It's just... hard… sometimes… to see the beauty, the art, in cold technology." It was a hesitant answer, probably because of a fear of being laughed at, but Haku understood. She held out her hand to her girlfriend.

"Let me show you the beauty in it." She said, trying to fill her silvery voice with love and promise. Luka took her hand trustingly without hesitation, stepping up into the back of the vehicle with her and sitting with the other two. Haku took up one of Miku's hands with her other one, and Miku took up Luka's free one so they formed a little circle. She looked them both over, and she could actually see a thin datastream that looked a little different than a wireless internet signal coming from Miku's head. It was stretching for the computer in the SUV and as it connected she found she could actually feel Miku's presence on the network. She knew it was Miku, felt certain she would have been able to tell even if the petite girl hadn't been sitting right there. It seemed the shorter girl could feel Haku's presence in it too judging by the way her green eyes widened at her in wonder. They'd never tried connecting to the same network before and Haku hadn't been expecting this, but she kept her calm composure in place and smiled at Miku before turning to Luka. They hadn't let go of their hands and Haku squeezed the taller girl's fingers gently. "Connect, please?" She asked, and after a moment a similar thin datastream extended from her head to the onboard computer as well. As soon as Luka's connection was established Miku and Haku both became aware of her presence on the network as they had with each other. The others both felt as different online as they did in person and Haku felt a thrill at the new discoveries.

"Oh wow." Luka said in surprise. "I can feel you both here, on this computer." She said.

"I've taught you both how to connect, how to see the datastreams and use therm." Haku said, and they nodded so she went on. "We never really went over what you could do with them as Vocaloids though." They blinked at her and she internally braced herself. She didn't know for sure this would work but thought it would. "Using this computer as sort of a virtual meeting room, I can show you what I do like all the time now in my head, how things look to me when I'm accessing the internet or other devices." They both leaned forward expectantly, and despite the fact that both of them were still having a hard time accepting what they were and what they could do, Haku could see a glint of anticipation in both green and blue eyes. Without so much as twitching a muscle physically she made a virtual globe that looked made out of the same pixelated colored tiles as the mosaic of the datastreams rotate into existence in her 3D interface overlay she always saw with her mind's eye now. The other two girls gasped in sunrise.

"Haku-chin! It's like a hologram or something!" Miku said excitedly.

"What is this, Haku-chin?" The pink haired beauty wanted to know.

"It's just an image I've conjured to demonstrate what I can see when I'm doing things. You could both make one too of you wanted. You just concentrate on needing a virtual space in your own mind." They both squinted and tried willing it into existence, and Haku could actually see the data flowing through their active datastreams. She could actually see exactly what they were doing in real time code! This was wild! "No not quite. You're not willing an actual object into existence, you're partitioning a data block in your cyberbrain. But that part isn't important, don't think about that. Just focus on needing a virtual space for something."

After a moment another smaller ball that looked the same as Haku's popped into existence in front of Miku. The petite girl blinked in surprise then giggled insanely and Haku recorded it with her mind's eye. "That is so cool!"

Luka took a little longer but it did finally come up. She blinked as though surprised at herself, then peered at it. "Why is mine more of an oval shape than a sphere?" She asked.

"It can be any shape you want, there's no physical form right? Here's the magical part." Haku couldn't stop her voice from taking on a note of excitement. "This is literally just how your biological brain is interpreting what your cyber systems are doing. The visual overlay can look however you want it to, it's just representing the space you've created in your own cyber systems for data, like if you changed a computer file's icon." A mere thought was all it took to morph her ball into a fighter jet and and send it zooming around in little circles and loop de loops between them.

The other two girls gasped again, and Miku's ball changed into a cute little cat that began to paw it's face. "Awwww!" She cooed at it.

Luka's shifted into a heart shape and turned pink and she giggled. "This is kinda neat, but I mean, what does it actually do?"

"Whatever you need it too." Haku replied. "Data storage for, saaaaaaaaaay, a video you took of your unsuspecting girlfriend?" They blinked as the fighter jet stopped moving in the middle between them, morphed into a little video window, and began a video playback of Miku's insanely giggling face from a few minutes before.

"Hey!" Miku shouted and Luka laughed and clapped her hands in delight.

"Oh that's hilarious!" She said. "You took that video with your own eyes?!"

"I did, and here's the art behind it." Haku said. "Your cyberbrain and biobrain are working in tandem like a dance to make this happen." She gestured at the holo images in their mind's eye before them. "This isn't actually happening, it's just data on a drive in your head. You yourselves are making this into art literally as you see it in real time. Every time you connect to the internet or a computer or network or whatever, you're creating cyber art in whatever way you want to see it." She morphed her video file back into a ball and sent it spinning to one side shining brightly. "The internet-" it pulsed a glow, "-files and other computers-" she gestured at the front of the SUV where their datastreams where connected and it seemed to sparkle, and she acted like she was pulling documents of it. The files pulled up before them and she scattered them on that ground like paper, then snapped a finger and they dissolved into a flash of glittering light dust and faded away. "-your phone-" she reached a hand to her pocket but didn't actually put it in, just mimed taking out a phone and created a pixelated one in her hand, which she 'tossed' into the air between them. It tumbled in the air as she gestured again and a tablet popped into existence with a glow, -tablets, cameras, vehicles, raw data, videos, pictures,-" Virtual objects popped into existence between them glowing different colors as she named them off, her girlfriends staring in awe, "-everything, literary anything you can connect to or conjure data for, you can do with as you will in your own virtual space. As Vocaloids every time we reach for data we are literally creating our own reality." She gestured as though flicking them and the virtual objects began to spin around them in a little light show.

"Haku-chin!" Luka breathed. "You're right! This really is beautiful!"

"I had no idea it could be like this!" Miku gushed. "This is incredible!"

Watching the looks of awe and wonder on their faces, her own words rang back to her in her mind. Literally anything you can connect too… create our own reality… the odd feeling she'd been trying to figure out for the past few days surged up within her, took her by force in that moment. She gasped as a euphoric feeling flooded her.

"Haku-chin…?" Luka sounded concerned now.

Haku began to laugh, she couldn't believe it. "That's not all either…" she said, sudden understanding rolling through her mind. She could practically feel her software rewriting itself, could almost taste her code altering, thought she could see protocols going crazy. This was absolutely incredible, and she didn't see exactly how it was happening yet, but it was and she was beginning to see things she'd never thought of before. "Juon-san once talked about breaking our limits. Gackpo goes on about mastering ourselves and our art. Even Doctor and Director Hatsune agreed this is an evolving process…" she was murmuring to herself as much as talking to them.

"What are you…?" Miku started to say.

Haku tilted her head back. "Our own reality!" She breathed as she felt the adjustments finish."Adaptation complete!" Her cascading snowy white hair pulsed and flickered and color flooded down it, like a blot of ink staining a page. Her eye color rolled like clouds shifting and darkening, and Luka and Miku screamed in shock as the sudden change left Haku with her original dark hair and eye color. Their faces were such picturesque looks of shock she couldn't stop a laugh.

"Haku-chin!" Luka gasped. "What… what happened?!"

"Remember in the Compound I said I knew we could do more than we were designed for? Could become whatever we wanted to be?" They nodded hesitantly. "We can connect to any device, interface with an technology. Why not ourselves?" They stared at her in shock at the idea and she pulled her dark hair forward. "We are technology made flesh, or flesh made technology. We're made of nanites that can enter and alter living cells. Mine changed my hair and eye color that first day on the train when I was attacked by that souldrinker, probably an anomalous error. But if we are capable of more, if we can master ourselves and our art, if we can transcend our original design limits…" she looked up at them and flicked her hair with her hand, and it strained a shade of pink exactly matching Luka's.

"I… I can hardly believe this!" Luka gasped.

"This is… this is crazy!" Miku waved a hand.

"As crazy as finding out one day that you're a cyborg?" She asked. They blinked at her, and slowly they began to settle down. They couldn't keep their eyes off her though, and after a minute Luka couldn't stop a comment.

"The white hair and red eyes really do suit you best."

"Totally." Miku agreed.

Haku smiled at them and let her hair and eyes turn back to white and red. "This is the Haku you know." She said.

"The Haku-chin we fell in love with." Miku corrected.

"You're the same Haku-chin either way, whatever color." Luka said. "I just personally like this best." She reached out to run a hand over the white locks. Haku felt her heart thud harder at the affection from the other two and she smiled at them, reaching a hand out and up as though to touch their datastreams. She didn't know what this would do, but… she didn't see why it wouldn't work… create their own reality… a night of discoveries...

"Disconnect from the computer for me please?" She asked, and they did allowing their datastreams to break. The little virtual meeting space vanished and all of the little 3D object renderings faded away, and Haku stretched her hand up to Luka's head as though to take hold of it. "Now…" she breathed quietly as they looked at her. "Connect… to me."

Eyes widened in shock at that idea, "Can… we even do that?" Luka asked startled.

"I don't see why not." Haku replied, letting her fingers angle down toward the pink strands without actually touching. She bent her wrist and elbow and moved a little closer. "It's just like two computers forming a direct connection instead of connecting through a network. Just try?" Luka nodded and Haku could see her data stream extend outward toward her, then stop as she hesitated.

"You aren't a computer though, it's not the same." Luka said, having a last reservation about the technology.

"We are computers, in part." She said. "It's alright, it's beautiful." She wrapped her fingers around the datastream, though of course there was nothing physical to actually touch, but she'd done this once before when learning and the movement somehow made it more intimate. She let herself take it, connect to it, let their networking protocols establish themselves, and abruptly Luka burst into her mind in a way like nothing ever before. They both stared wide eyed at each other in complete shock. Haku hadn't known what to expect but it hadn't been this. There was a kind of portion of her mind where her girlfriend had kind of taken up residence, and through that she could experience everything Luka was. She could see through her eyes, could hear through her ears, could feel through her skin. She let her fingers stretch down to stroke Luka's hair, and she could feel Luka feeling her own touch.

"Haku-chin!" Luka said breathlessly. "I can see myself looking at you through your eyes! I can feel you feeling me feel your touch!"

Having silently watch this connection process Miku bounced in place on her heels excitedly. "Me too me too me too!" She exclaimed, and Haku turned her eyes to see Miku's datastream extending toward her. She didn't see why she couldn't connect to both so she took hold of her other girlfriend's mind as well, and an instant later Miku blossomed into her awareness the same way Luka had. Haku was enthralled at the intimacy of this, beyond any physical touch. They were literally sharing their minds with each other. Miku looked to Luka and they stretched out toward each other too, and their circle completed. Haku leaned in to brush her lips across Miku's, a light kiss just as a test, and they could both feel the other feeling it, experience the other experiencing the sensation, even as they felt it themselves. "That. Is. Wild." Miku breathed.

Luka had a hand to her lips. "I could feel you both feeling that." She told them in a reverent tone. "This is kind of like… a little like the Resonance sensations Miku and I have sometimes when we Resonate, but far more… encompassing. I can feel… everything… about you both."

" _And that's not all._ " Haku thought at them without speaking aloud, and could hear her thoughts echo in their minds.

"OH NO WAY!" Miku began bouncing in place again, her bubbly excitement over flowing. "Telepathy?! Are you kidding me?! Are you totally yanking my chain right now?!"

" _Not telepathy, wireless data transfer._ " Haku thought at them.

"It's mind to mind, it's totes telepathy!" Miku shouted, then they all winced as every one of them heard the shout through all three of each other's ears.

"Miku-chin… ow." Luka rubbed at her ears like that would do any good. She looked to Haku, closed her eyes a moment to focus, then her thoughts echoed in their minds. " _This is truly amazing Haku-chin, I can hardly believe all of this. How did you change your hair?_ "

" _I've been having this funny feeling for days, like there was a need to hide in plain sight so we could keep from being easily recognizable but still do what we needed to do. Doctor Hatsune herself said the nanites could alter our cells, and with the fact that we can control technology as Vocaloids it made sense that should include our own bodies. Surpass our design limits, right?_ " The flow of thought was faster than speaking and they were nodding along.

" _Can you show us how?_ " Miku wanted to know.

Instinct and emotion… it was beginning to make sense to her. She brought forth the desire, let her want to share this with them fill her, and the datastream between them flowed with the programming of the alteration she had just made. They accepted it, received it, and as they were processing it she let her thoughts ring through their minds. " _You don't have to understand it, or even consciously examine it. I understand now what Hibiki-sensei is anyways saying about instinct and emotion. The human brain doesn't run off of ones and zeroes, it's not up to it to interpret our technological data. The Vocaloid Chip does that. It reads our brain waves and converts our needs and feelings into the binary bits our cyborg parts need. We can copy information mind to mind, all you have to do is desire it, want it, need it, your cyberbrain will do the rest- that's it!_ "

She let her flow of thoughts change to a general sense of pride in the others as Miku's light blue hair turned a vivid purple and Luka's pink changed to a deep crimson the same way hers had. She could understand now why they had jumped when they'd seen hers stain black, it was a sudden and shocking change. They looked at each other wide eyed with giddiness, studying each other and themselves through the other's eyes. "This is soooooooooooooo amazing." Miku said aloud. "I haven't felt as good about this whole thing since I found out what we are."

"I know what you mean." Luka agreed, looking to Haku. "You are absolutely amazing Haku-chin. Really and truly astonishing."

Haku blushed and shook her head. "I just want us to be happy again, and I don't think we can be unless we learn what we are, unless we truly discover ourselves and what it really is to be a Vocaloid."

"That's what makes you so amazing though!" Miku gushed. "I'd never have thought of all this!"

Haku waved a hand in the air. "This is just that beginning. I'm sure there's more to find." She said.

"Okay, but if you're going to go geniusing things can we go have our bath first?!" Miku asked, and they all giggled and got out of the car. Miku gave up two of the sweatshirts so they could all wear one since evening time was beginning to set in and with a thought they all changed their hair and eyes to varying shades of more natural dark colors. Then they took each other's hands and headed in the direction that would take them deeper into the city. They left the car, choosing instead to walk since they were trying to avoid attention rather than attract it, and as dark was just beginning to fall they found a shopping center that had a bathhouse in it. What's more, it had a laundry service. It took every coin Miku had left from that afternoon but they happily changed and had their week old clothes sent off to be cleaned after disrobing, gathered the basic soaps that came with the admissions they'd chosen since they had none of their own, and went off to wash. This time of night still had a fair number of people about and they had to contend with other women in the ladies area but they managed to get stools next to each other while they washed, chatting idly about nothing important as they went about cleaning themselves. They never did disconnect from each other's minds, so the entire time each was enjoying the heavenly feeling of becoming clean after a week of grime they were also feeling the same sensations the other two were feeling. It wasn't like they were feeling everything three fold, just that they could each feel the others feeling it. It wasn't the same as feeling themselves, but still intense, and it made everything way more vivid in their minds. Haku had been worried it would feedback loop, amplify on itself, like two mirrors facing each other, but it didn't seem to work that way, for which she was grateful. Though she did gasp aloud and hunch over when she felt the other two washing their groins, as they did when they felt the same. Feeling someone else touching themselves was positively lewd whatever the context, and abruptly her face was on fire as she imagined making love like this… and both of their heads came around to stare at her in wide eyed incredulity.

" _H-Haku-chin!_ " Miku's thoughts rang through their minds, and she was glad the petite girl didn't speak of such indecent thoughts aloud. " _T-That is…! I mean that thought w-was…!_ " She paused a minute then sheepishly changed to, " _Do you… t-think that would… w-work…?_ "

" _There's only one way to find out…_ " Came a thought from Luka, and the fires that were their cheeks changed to infernos, even Luka's, but they were all thinking it now.

" _Not here though of course, way to public._ " Haku put in. " _And unless we can get more money for another bath soon, probably not until then. I don't want to be walking around smelling like… like…_ " she couldn't even say it, not even in her head, but they understood, nodding vigorously.

They moved to the massive public tub for a nice soak once they were clean, as it felt so good to finally not be feeling super gungy that she didn't even mind the tub being more warm than hot. Well… she didn't overly mind, anyway. Luka did though; she could feel her girlfriend's disappointment in the water's temperature through their mental link. What really bothered Haku was the three little girls running about screaming and playing. They must have gotten away from their mother, but it was annoying. All in all it was a much less relaxing experience than at home in the Vocaloid Compound, but it was still absolutely wonderful after the week they'd had. They sat together soaking and thinking idle thoughts at each other, each girl doing her best to keep her hands to herself in spite of the urge to play and experiment, though they did hold hands under the water and let their legs touch. When their clothes were finally done they gathered their towels, got out, and made their way to change. Once dried and dressed with their hair brushed out with the little cheap plastic brushes in their bath kits they left the bathhouse feeling far better than they had in days, and they recaptured each other's hands as they made their way back to their isolated squatting spot. Cleaned and still giddy from their night's discoveries they gathered their blankets into the massive SUV once they got back, reverted their hair and eye colors to normal, and cuddled up to each other. Despite not wanting to make love and spoil their cleanliness they still spent a couple of hours just holding each other and kissing, lightly groping and letting hands wander teasingly. Feeling the others feeling things was proving a marvel in and of itself, and it was such a turn on they eventually had to stop or pass the point of no return, so they cuddled in together drowsily until they feel asleep in each other's arms.


	30. Vocaloid Academy Chapter 30

Going back to that bathhouse they'd gotten their first bath in a week at to ask for a part time job had been, in Haku's opinion, one of the best ideas she'd ever had in her entire life. Now that they had the ability to alter their hair and eye color through control of their nanites, the three Vocaloids had found being on the run from the government to be immeasurably easier. They all had found ways to go about in public to help their situation without drawing attention to themselves, hiding in plain sight as it were. They were still sleeping in the massive Karlmann King they'd recovered from her parent's destroyed lab, and rather than squatting in the abandoned building they had used at first they moved the massive SUV around every few nights to avoid being seen in the same place for very long at a time, and they had all taken up some way of making a little money to get them by. None of them had wanted real jobs, but they needed money to at least buy basic necessities, so they'd bitten that bullet and gone to look. Haku enjoyed working at the bathhouse because the work itself was simple and the owner was a nice, albeit somewhat senile, old man who let her use it after closing time. She just had to wait until the last customer had left at night if she wanted to, and so long as she cleaned up before she left he didn't seem to care. He also seemed to forget her name as often as not, which was probably to the good. Most nights now she would sneak her two girlfriends in after closing time and they would enjoy a hot bath together since she had control over the temperature gauges now too. Luka had taken a part time repair job at an independent mechanic shop doing simple tune ups to cars for a man who didn't seem to mind paying cash on a daily basis and didn't ask too many questions about her. Miku would spend a couple of hours each day doing sketches in the park for people for tips. She'd wanted to put out a hat and sing or play music, but after discussing It they'd all agreed It was best to stay away from music lest it draw too many connections to them. It was a simplistic life, easy and appealing in its way, and over the week that followed the night they'd made their discoveries she'd almost started to think she could have lived like this forever… if it didn't mean hiding forever. And she had to admit, privately to herself, if it didn't also mean giving up her new singing career. Somewhere along the way that had become important to her, and she wasn't sure when.

Tonight however they weren't meeting at the bathhouse, they were meeting at the shop Luka was working in. They'd decided to meet there because the pink haired beauty had said that a wrecked car had come in that might have the right kinds of cables they could salvage for their SUV to get the power fixed a little. There was nothing they could do about the damaged V-Core in their vehicle, and in truth the constant fading in and out of the lights was getting annoying, but at least it seemed stable for now. What they needed to do was get the diagnostic terminal working inside the thing so they coughs maintain themselves, and Haku was itching to get a look at the code changes she'd subconsciously managed to alter to change her hair and eye color. She also still needed to run a diagnostic to find out why that injection that Meiko and Ia had shot them with had affected her but neither of the other two. Vocaloids were creatures instinct and emotion, but she still wanted to see the science behind it. So she had hurried through her closing shop duties tonight to get done faster, turned off the lights, and locked the door behind herself as she left.

The night air wasn't as cold as it had been for the past few weeks, though not exactly warm. At least it meant not freezing all the time, just a lot of it. Except for Miku anyway. Haku giggled to herself as she walked along the sidewalk thinking about how the petite girl would probably complain about being cold even if she were in a sauna. Turning a corner a gust of wind caught her nearly jet black hair and she shivered as a biting wind nipped at her, pulling her sweater tighter around herself, and a voice drifted to hear ear carried by the sudden wind. "-changing direction, northbound two blocks over, copy." Haku blinked and stopped in her tracks, then wondered if that was the best thing, so she turned her head as though looking at the street signs, and she strained to hear the voice again. The wind had passed but she caught it anyway. "Wait, she's stopped, I think she's looking at the street signs. Maybe she's lost." For a long few moments she glanced around at the directional signs, casually trying to search for the owner of the voice while making it look like she was only interested in what street she was on. After a moment she saw a man in an all black outfit with an earpiece, and her blood ran cold. He looked just like the suits that had come after them in the subway tunnel the other week. Turning, she began walking off toward the park Miku was waiting in, and as soon as she did she heard the voice again now that her sound systems had locked on to him. "Target has resumed movement, northbound as before." Now slightly freaked out she had to force herself to keep an even pace, not wanting to tip off her pursuer. She took a few random turns to try to throw him off, hearing him reporting each time, but she couldn't be too crazy with it or that might alert him just as much. She started looking for somewhere to hide but then ahead of her down the block she was on she saw another black suit. Panicked she turned abruptly, made it another couple of blocks, and saw another suited man. They'd mostly boxed her in and she was running out of options. Fighting down the panic as much as she could she resumed her previous path toward the park. Whether intentionally or unintentionally they were herding her in the direction she wanted to go anyway. Having Miku in easy calling range would make her feel a little better, at least. They didn't need any cell phone reception or computer networks to connect to each other anymore, but their range was limited in distance. Haku's range was a little bigger than the other two's it seemed, but it was only a little larger than a traditional WiFi signal, which meant she'd need to be closer

The park came into sight ahead and rather than feel relieved she suddenly felt hunted, like a prey animal being herded. She could have fought her way free she supposed, but they were still human beings and she didn't want to hurt anyone. She wondered if these government people knew Miku was in this park or if they'd picked it for another reason. It seemed silly of them to intentionally herd her toward reinforcements rather than try to divide them… unless they'd already felt with Miku… frantically she began reaching out for her girlfriend with her cybermind, trying to scan for her signal. Worry lanced through her like a knife but as she stepped into the park she was given something else to worry about. She found herself flanked to either side by Meiko on her right and Ia on her left. Meiko was wearing a cute red short vest over top of a grey shirt with black pants and heeled boots, and when she had Haku's eye she shifted one side of the red vest open to reveal the hilt of her dart gun before letting it drop back into place. Ia didn't show her one, but her voluminous white and grey shirt and skirts could have been hiding one anywhere. She shifted her gaze back to Meiko and the brown haired girl nodded in the direction they were facing.

"Keep walking." She said. "We're just a couple of friends out together, no need to alert the public."

"Just a couple of friends… who sometimes try to abduct each other?" Haku asked quietly, but continuing on foot was fine with her since she still couldn't sense Miku yet.

"We're really sorry for that." Ia said beside her with sincerity ringing in her voice. "We can't disobey orders…"

Haku glanced from one of them to the other. "Then you're not going to try to kidnap me right now?"

"This minute? No." Meiko replied. "But we've been ordered to try to bring you in again. They just didn't say _when_." She gave a wicked little smirk as they followed the path through the park. "It's become sort of a game you see, following orders we're programmed to obey but finding little cracks in them."

"We wanted to talk first." Ia said with a note of hope in her tone now. "We were hoping…" She glanced sideways seeming at a loss for words.

"Was Megurine-san telling the truth?" Meiko asked furtively. "Can you really… fix us? So we can be free?"

Haku considered them for a long moment of silence before saying anything, both of their faces twisted up with hopeful yet trepadicious looks. Finally she answered their question with a question of her own. "Before I answer that, answer two things for me. First of all, when did this happen to you?"

"When did this…?" Meiko narrowed her eyes a bit. "What's that have to do with anything?"

"I want to know if what I'm thinking is right." Haku replied calmly.

"She's testing us." Ia told the short haired girl, then shifted her gaze to Haku. "I just woke up in a lab. I was a filing clerk in a medium sized precinct downtown. I've had all the basic training and all that but… well I don't… like fighting…" Ia blushed a little and her pale locks shuddered as she shook her head. "I don't do well with the pressure so they put me in the evidence room as a filing clerk. One day I was called to a conference, and I remember going into a room, then waking up in a lab. That's all."

With a curious glance Haku shifted her red eyes to Meiko, and the brown eyed girl sighed. "It was the same for me, only I was a great combat trainee. We weren't at the same precinct, we had never met before this happened to us, but we've grown… close… since then, and, well…" Meiko sighed and tilted her head back to gaze at the sky. "After you disappeared from University Haku, I finished up the term I was in and was accepted to the Academy. I was nearly done with basic training when I was called to meet some big wig official and the same deal happened to me. Walked into a room, woke up in a lab."

It seemed to fit what Haku was thinking about them. Both fairly young, fairly new to their fields, aptitudes in different areas… "The government picked you because no one would miss you." She told them, and they looked at her startled. "They couldn't pick some big important general or something because that would be noticed and cause questions." Their eyes widened in surprise at her deduction and she moved on to her second question. "Assuming I could free you right this minute, what would you do?"

"What do you mean?" Meiko asked curiously. "We'd be free to do whatever."

Haku shook her head, "No, you'd be on the run like I am. Like we are." She amended that last, and the looks on their faces showed they understood. "Like you said, you're expensive property, they wouldn't just let you go." They crested a short hill and began descending down the other side, the path curving off one way, and as the other two girls thought about it Haku abruptly felt Miku's presence come into her wireless range. She reached out and nudged the petite girl with her cybermind and felt an instant response, and that quickly they connected and Miku's presence seemed to fill Haku's mind. Despite the dour situation she felt a thrill go through herself, it was alway so glorious to connect with the women she loved.

" _Haku-chin! I missed you! Oh but I got these super cute cat ears from someone as a tip and-_ " Haku cut her girlfriend's train of thought off.

" _Meiko and Aria-san are here._ " She thought urgently.

Surprise came from the ball of sensation that was Miku's presence in her mind and her response was immediate, " _I'm coming._ "

" _Stay back for a minute when you get here, they wanted to talk first, let's learn as much as we can_." She replied silently as Meiko looked around and started talking again, the entire exchange between linking with Miku and this moment having taken mere seconds. She could see a little window in her 3D interface visual overlay that showed her what Miku was seeing as the petite girl rushed through the park; running through the park really, judging by how fast trees and objects were blurring passed the video feed. She knew Miku could hear every word through Haku's ears and the connection, too.

"I suppose we'd have to go on the run too." Meiko said carefully. "It's not like we could go back to our old lives. Sarge knows who we were, where we came from, they'd look in our old houses for us first thing." She clenched her jaw and her fists and growled angrily, "They took everything from us, Haku. Everything!"

"What if…" Ia ventured quietly. "What if we… went with Yowane-san and… and helped her…?" Meiko's head came up and she peered at the pale haired girl. "Well I mean, you're friends aren't you? Couldn't we… couldn't we help each other?"

Meiko turned a questioning gaze on Haku. "... are we? Still friends?"

Haku regarded her right back for a moment before saying cautiously, "So long as you aren't trying kidnap me of your own free will then I think we still can be. I know what it's like to be used against your will, but… that doesn't make the situation any easier."

A short laugh came from Meiko. "If I wanted you captured I wouldn't have tried to warn you when I was still under cover."

"Warn me?" Haku asked. "You mean when we had lunch before?"

Meiko nodded, "I was under orders at the time not to reveal myself, but then the other day on the subway we were ordered to capture you because you'd noticed the van and hacked the government database."

"So you shot me with a neutralizing agent of some kind." Haku filled in the rest, and she felt a spike of fury from Miku in her mind.

"It was supposed to disrupt your nanites functioning properly for a limited time, but it didn't work on Megurine-san or Hatsune-san. We're not sure why." Ia said by way of confirmation.

"And when we're done talking and your programming resumes you're going to try again." It wasn't a question, and they didn't try to argue with Haku about that. Another burst of fury in the back of her head. She thought about it for a long minute or two before letting out a sigh. "I can't promise anything. I want to help, but because of what happened in the subway we've been on the run and stranded on our own for weeks. Food and shelter was a problem for a while, and we're just starting to get that sorted out."

"You mean with that ridiculous wig?" Meiko said but smirked at her to take the sting out of the joke. "Or did you actually dye it? Did you think so obvious a ploy would really fool experienced government operatives trained in detection techniques? Hair dye and contacts are like, beginners spy school."

Haku blinked at that, her eyes widening. "I… guess I did." She flushed a little in embarrassment, and felt frustration from Miku in her mind. "But anyway, I'm not exactly equipped to be altering your programming right now. We don't even having a working diagnostic terminal for our own maintenance needs at the moment."

"But if you did…" Meiko said slowly. "Then you could."

She gave a slow nod, "Yes."

"What are you thinking, Meiko-tan?" Ia asked curiously,but Meiko gave a small shrug.

"I'm not sure…" Meiko tugged at her vest and glanced around as they made their way about the park. Haku was a little concerned she might see Miku but the video frame of the petite girl's vision in her 3D view showed her girlfriend was watching them from a different angle while following at a discrete distance. "If we could find some way to get you some supplies…" she mused thoughtfully, causing Haku to blink in surprise. "We haven't been ordered not to, say, leave things out in certain places at certain times…"

Ia coughed slightly and glanced around like she thought someone might have been listening. "The problem with that is that there's very little that can't be traced in some way." She tapped at the side of her own head. "Anything electronic could be bugged in some way, and they might follow us at any time. Moments like these are rare, when they give us a directive and wait for us to carry it out. They've surrounded the park, just waiting."

Elements of the conversation were spinning through Haku's mind as she tried up puzzle out how to proceed. Getting out of the park was the first step of course. She didn't know if just defeating Meiko and Ia would accomplish that, or if it did this time if it would next time. It seemed to her that if they kept defeating them that Public Security Intelligence would just start finding new ways to cause them problems. " _I agree_ ," Miku's thoughts echoed in her mind, the other girl apparently having been listening to her mental thought train. " _It would be best if we could find some way out that didn't involve an actual fight this time._ " Best… Haku glanced around. These two were taking an awful risk just taking to her like this and she could appreciate that, but somehow she just couldn't bring herself to trust it just yet. After all, what if they'd been ordered to make all this up?

" _They could still just be manipulating us._ " She thought back to Miku. " _We need some kind of proof_." The reaction from the petite girl didn't come in words, just a general feeling of agreement without knowing what to say to it. Haku didn't know what to say about it either. She couldn't be certain of anything until she had a chance to look at their code, but that didn't seem likely. She had to say something; the entire exchange with Miku over their connection hadn't even taken a second but she couldn't look like she was thinking too hard. "I want to help you both, but I need some… assurances first."

Meiko narrowed her eyes at that, "What assurances?"

"I need more information to go on." She told them trying to sound like she was making a reasonable request. "Right now we're on the run with nothing. Food, warmth, and shelter are our biggest problems. We're fighting hunger and exhaustion as much as anything else." Ia's face held a look of such sympathy it seemed she might say something to that but Haku pressed on. "Yet even so, it seems we have the advantage. We can disappear, even if you can track us when we come into the city, and what's more we have the means to fight back. But Public Security is still holding all the cards. If we're going to fight them and free you, we need not only the means to do so, but the knowledge of how to as well."

"What sort of knowledge?" Meiko asked. "We've told you everything about our circumstances."

"The name of your commanding officer." Haku's silvery voice took on that tone she used when reciting details for people, connecting dots for them so they could understand the things they were missing. "His or her rank and position. Where they live, where they go in their off hours and when those off hours are. How many people are part of your unit, their names and positions. What division you work for and the location of your headquarters. What sort building it is, what kinds of security measures it has in place, how many cameras there are, number of guards, automated defenses, types of personnel, connected facilities, garrison information-" Haku cut off when the pair before her made little sounds in their throats, their eyes wide.

"You need to know all that?" Ia spluttered

"Any information, even the smallest most insignificant seeming detail, could prove important." She replied evasively, then followed up immediately to keep from giving them a moment to ponder it. "If you want my help, you have to help me help you, do you see?" They nodded slowly. "Get what information you can for me, and we'll go from there."

"Alright, we'll do what we can. I'm not sure how effective it will be, we've been ordered to capture you, not help you…" Meiko seemed to struggle internally.

"We weren't ordered not to put together a data profile for record keeping purposes though…" Ia ventured, and Meiko blinked at her then laughed.

"Oh Ia-tan, that's great. Alright, we'll do our best."

With that the atmosphere abruptly turned tense and they shifted their gazes uncomfortably. "Is this the part where your orders kick in?" Haku asked.

"I think so… we seem to be at the end of our discussion." Meiko replied guardedly.

"Well then I suggest you declare a tactical retreat." She said, stopping where they were to look at them meaningfully, and when they blinked at her she gestured vaguely around them. "You said your orders tonight were to 'try to bring me in' right?' When they nodded she shrugged. "You never had a chance to this evening. I was meeting Miku-chin here and we were meeting Luka-chin. You think you've cornered me, but you haven't. I'd say your attempt has failed, ne?"

They stared at her in surprise and Meiko asked, "You're not bluffing? Hatsune-san and Megurine-san are here?" With that Miku strolled out of the tree cover as casually as could be. The only change to her teal trimmed black skirt and grey blouse under an open unzipped dark sweater were a pair of black cat ears on her head. They rested in her jet black hair which was pulled into one single ponytail to avoid her so noticeable signature twintails, but she still seemed to radiate a dangerous vibe.

Miku walked right up to Haku, put an arm around her waist, and smiled to the two government women. "Good evening Sakine-san, Aria-san."

Meiko just shook her head and sighed. "Two on one we might have stood a chance, but three on two…?" She glanced up at the pair and smirked. "You're right, by the wording of the order this attempt has failed."

"I suppose we will need new orders." Ia let out a giggle.

"Right, then let's go and see what we can do." They started to turn and leave but abruptly Ia turned back and produced her wallet. "H-Here." She took out a credit card and held it out to Haku. "It's a… prepaid credit card. There's only enough on it for a couple days of groceries, but…?" She trailed off nervously but kept holding it out in offering. "They're tracing your credit cards, but… this one isn't yours?"

Haku shook her head, "Oh no, that's… that's kind of you but it's not necessary."

Ia took a small step forward and leaned in to press it into her hand. "Please, I insist. You said after all to help you help us." Haku nodded slowly and the pale haired girl smiled at her before turning back to Meiko.

"Come on, we've spent too much time here." She glanced back to Haku. "They're watching last known locations right now. Don't give them a reason to widen their search." With that the two turned and walked off. As soon as they were out of earshot Miku turned to her.

"Why did you tell them Luka-chin was here?" Miku asked quizzically, and Haku reached down to take her hand and started them walking in the opposite direction. She felt Miku's surprise from the link in the back of her mind at the hand holding since they were supposed to be being careful in public, but she didn't object and after a moment the alarm turned to pleasure. It was so wild still, having someone else's brain inside your own, they were all still getting used to it, but she could feel Miku enjoying the feel of her hand in hers, even as she herself did, knowing Miku could feel her enjoying the feel of her hand in hers… god it was so confusing when she thought about it like that, but it felt so nice.

"I didn't say Luka-chin was here." Haku replied, and when Miku glanced at her in confusion she said, "I said you were here, and we were meeting her. I didn't say when and where…"

Miku's hazel eyes widened and she let out a laugh which she covered with her free hand. "Oh my god Haku-chin that's fantastic. Not a single untrue word but twisted to make them draw the wrong conclusion. That's the kind of thing I'd expect from Luka-chin!"

"Well I had to say something. Come on, let's go meet her." They made their way out of the park and glanced around for government agents as they stepped onto the sidewalk and turned down a different street. Haku's dark hair fluttered in a gentle night breeze but she pushed it back out of her face and over her shoulder as they walked along.

Letting out a little shiver and zipping up the sweatshirt she wore over her grey blouse Miku asked curiously, "Did you really need all that info you told them? That seems like a lot of stuff."

"Not necessarily all of it no, but as much as possible will help. It's more that I want to see how much of it they actually get." She told her girlfriend, keeping hold of her hand as a crowd of people streamed around them while crossing a street. She was still trying to keep an eye out for government agents tailing them, but it was hard to see around the throngs of people going about their evening's business. She couldn't see any, but there was no way to be sure until they got clear of populated areas.

"Why?" Miku prompted. "What will it change?"

"Well what I said was true, any small detail could be useful, but more important is if they actually bring back any info, and if they do what of it is useful or even true."

"So we can see if they're really being truthful about what's going on or if they're playing with us." Miku said seeing the logic chain and giving a little nod. "You're just too smart, Haku-chin." She said sounding a little proud.

Haku flushed ever so faintly and squeezed her hand in response, and they made their way down the intervening blocks to the mechanic shop. The instant they got close enough to feel Luka's presence their connections stretched out and linked, and abruptly all three girls had the feel of the other two in the backs of their minds. They hurried up to the closed shop and Luka appeared in the doorway, average brown hair pulled back in a ponytail and her dark eyes positively sparkling over the junky old coveralls she was wearing from working that day. "You two will never believe-!" She cut off abruptly as she glanced over them and narrowed her eyes. "Miku-chin, did you waste money on cat ears?"

"What?! No!" Miku reached a hand up to brush at the ears on her head. "No, someone gave them to me when I was drawing in the park today!"

Luka's narrowed eyes stayed stern for a few moments then she smiled. "You're so cute it kills me." Miku sagged in relief and Haku pushed them through the door into the building and pulled the door closed, then began glancing out the windows. Luka blinked in confusion watching her checking outside and her crystalline voice was confused. "What's wrong Haku-chin? Why so antsy?"

It was Miku who answered though, "We ran into Sakine-san and Aria-san in the park."

The taller girl's demeanor changed in an instant from playful to stern and she asked, "What happened? Are they following you?"

"No," Haku replied drawing the shades on the shop and turning to Luka. "Here, I'll show you." The events were recent enough in her mind it was a simple matter to just call up the memory in her own head and run through everything, essentially playing it back in her mind while Luka… well 'watched' wasn't the right word as she was receiving a data feed from Haku via their cybernetic connection, but she perceived it as Haku gave it to her. Luka blinked in surprise but seemed intent on receiving the playback, and Miku watched wide eyed as they traded the data.

"I can actually see you guys sharing the memory! That's so wild." Miku giggled.

Luka put a hand to her mouth in surprise as she saw everything play out, then once it was done she moved in to hug her, but Haku pulled back with a wince. When Luka's expression contorted in worry Haku muttered, "Sorry, just…" She gestured a hand at Luka's coveralls. "You're grimy." Luka looked down at herself then put her head back and sighed.

"God Haku-chin it's just engine grease." She giggled though and so did the other two after a moment. Luka picked up a rag from a table, squirted some red sandy stuff onto her hands from a jug with a pump, and began to wipe at them. "At least you're okay. Do you really think they'll come through on that?"

"I don't know, but whether we find out about the two of them or more about the government's operations, either way we'll know more than we do now."

"I suppose that's true." Luka set the rag down and gestured toward the back of the shop with her head. "Come on, let me show you what we've got." She led them out into the yard, the crisp air biting at them again as soon as they left the relative shelter of the building, but a high thick wooden fence cut them off from view of the surrounding buildings and Luka walked them up to a big red SUV smashed in on the front end. "It was a head on collision, but the car's frame took most of the impact. Look here." She pulled the door open to the driver's seat and pointed, and Haku leaned in for a look.

"And we can just take whatever?" Miku asked dubiously.

"I mentioned to my boss that my car was having some problems and this one looked similar, and he said he's just going to part it out and I could have anything minor off it that I needed." Luka replied, holding the door for Haku. "He's a small shop, there's no way he can restore this on his own in any kind of timely fashion to turn a profit on it."

"The computer is still intact." Haku said, glancing along where the wires were stretched out beneath the dashboard. She unplugged one end from the computer and looked at it. "It's the same sort of cabling that's in our car. A little older I think, but the port looks the same. Power would reach it at least…" She was murmuring more to herself than the others and she tugged another plug out. "Yuch, definitely old, but… serviceable?" She leaned in farther, pulling at plugs and examining them, muttering to herself as she went through them one after another. Some she discarded, tossing to the floor and dismissing them, others she reached up to set on the driver seat above her as she carefully threaded out the ones that she thought might be useful from the underside. The feeling of rising mischief in the back of her mind that didn't belong to her should have warned her, but she was so engrossed in tracing the wires and carefully unhooking things that the pinch on her bottom came completely out of nowhere and she squeaked in surprise, jerking up suddenly and banging her head on the underside of the dashboard. She let out a yelp of pain and leaned out of the car clutching at her head, turning to see her girlfriends both staring at her wide eyed. Judging by the guilt flowing from Miku in the back of her mind along their connection she knew who'd done it, and she glared while rubbing her head. "What was that for?"

"You were taking forever and your butt looked so good." Miku said sheepishly.

"Like that makes it okay…" Haku winced and tilted her head to the side, and Miku leaned up to put a little kiss on her temple.

"There, all better." She said.

Haku glared at her then reached in and withdrew the cables from the driver's seat she wanted to keep and thrust them into Miku's arms. "For that, you get to carry these." Miku let out a wordless whine of protest and Haku rubbed her head again. "Ow…"

"Come on you two, let's get to the store and get out of here." Luka said, unzipping the one piece jumpsuit covering her usual black and gold clothes as they went back into the shop area. She hung the coveralls on a peg in a corner after stepping out of them and washed her hands thoroughly with that red grainy stuff again, rinsed them at a faucet in the back, then they left, Miku carrying the cables and Luka locking up on their way out. Once outside Haku couldn't help glancing about for agents again as they made their way toward the edges of the city, beginning to feel like she was getting a little paranoid.

Once they got to the store they moved about the aisles picking out basic food things. It was all just cheap and bland stuff but at least it wasn't convenience store food again. Miku picked out some bottles of tea and boxes of pocky for each of them and grabbed a magazine, and when she walked up they eyed her. " Miku-chin, I'm not sure we should splurge on that."

"We've had nothing but noodles and water for days, I don't think it's a splurge at this point." The petite girl complained. Haku understood both of their points. They were famous idols and all came from money besides. They weren't used to roughing it like they were, they were more accustomed to a lavish lifestyle. On the other hand they didn't have that money anymore and they couldn't afford to live like they had. Haku blinked and slowly took out the prepaid credit card Ia had given her. The other two noticed and looked at her.

"Is that a good idea, Haku-chin?" Luka asked carefully. "If we can't be sure yet if they can be trusted…?" She left the rest unsaid, that the government could be waiting and watching for the card to get used, but Haku looked off toward the the self service counters.

"No… but it gives me an idea…" She replied putting the prepaid card back into a pocket. They followed her gaze and then trailed along behind her as she led them over to the ATM in the corner and watched as she selected a blank prepaid credit card as if she were going to buy it. She glanced at them, then brought up several 3D interface elements in her vision overlay which she knew her girlfriends could see because they were still linked. They watched her curiously at first but then after a moment or two their eyes widened as she turned toward the ATM, linked with it, and inserted the card, her code breaking software rotating into existence to their eyes like a big block of data mosaic and kicking in. The ATM's screen began to fritz out and Luka reached out toward her.

"Haku-chin! What are you doing?!" Luka's crystalline voice was intense and Haku blinked at her.

"Solving our money problems."

"You can't do that!" Luka hissed, and Miku wrung her hands.

"I agree, I really don't think-" The petite girl cut off as the machine lit up and nines began to scroll across the screen where it showed the balance of the card.

Their eyes widened in surprise at it and abruptly Luka reached one hand out to snatch the card out of the machine, snagged Haku's hand with the other, and marched them off toward the customer service counter. As they moved over to it she brought the card up to her lips and let out a brief super high pitched note well outside of human hearing ranges directly against the microchip, causing a crack right down the center of the bronze coloring. She walked up to the guy at the service window and set it on the counter before him. "Hello, I'm sorry to bother you, but this card has some sort of error on it."

He blinked at her in confusion, "Oh? What error? Did it not work?"

"No, it like glitched out or something. There were a bunch of numbers scrolling and weird things happened, I dunno." Miku told him beside Luka.

"Oh, huh, I'm sorry to hear that." He turned around and ran the card through a shredder and turned back to them. "You're welcome to try again with another card if you'd like."

"Thank you." Luka replied, then still holding Haku's hand she stormed off, forcing Haku to follow her. They paid for the groceries they had, stepped outside into the night air, then the moment they were around the corner to the side of the building and out of easy eye shot Luka rounded on Haku. "What do you think you were doing?!" She wasn't quite yelling, not quiet, but her crystal voice was as hard as diamonds, a tone Haku had only ever heard her use with enemies until now. She swallowed hard and blinked.

"I was trying to… help us out of this situation…"

"By stealing?!" Luka demanded hotly.

"It wouldn't have been stealing… exactly…" Haku tried weakly, but Luka shook her head.

"We both know you're far too smart for either of us to buy that. Haku-chin, someone would eventually have to pay for that. You're not just magicing up free money! The credit card company would report the amount to the bank and someone would realize that no actual money entered the ATM! They could eventually trace the transaction back to this location, match it with security cameras, find out who was here-"

Haku cut her off as emotion boiled over inside her, and she wasn't entirely sure she wasn't feeding off the anger from the other girl she could very clearly feel in the back of her mind. "You and Miku-chin are starving!" Both of their dark eyes went wide in surprise, and well they might. Haku never yelled, her anger was always cold and frosty, but she was burning now. "It's been weeks! I've watched our situation deteriorate and it's my fault because they're after me! Am I supposed to just drag you two down with me?! Watch you freeze and starve when I could do something about it?!"

Luka's hands impacted the stone wall to either side of Haku's head and she couldn't stop a yelp as the slightly taller girl leaned her face in super close to hers. "You shouldn't become a thief to fix it. One wrong cannot right another. Thousands, no _millions_ , of people fight the same sorts of hardships in the world every day that we're facing now, and they don't become thieves to fix it."

"Some… some of them… do…" Miku's voice was tiny in the face of her girlfriends' fury aimed at each other, and she visibly withered when Luka turned her gaze on her without moving from where she had Haku pinned.

"Not helping, Miku-chin."

"S-S-Sorry…" Miku stuttered.

Luka turned back to Haku. "You should do everything you can of course, but we will not compromise ourselves or who we are, or trod on the backs of others in the process."

"I could give myself up…" Haku said, and that brought a massive surge of fear and fury from the minds within her own. "It's me they're after… if I turned myself in they might let you two go…"

"I thought we'd put that sort of talk away for good." Luka said, her voice so quiet it was all the more intense because of it. "I thought we were done with those kinds of ideas."

"I just…" Haku swallowed hard and shook her head. "I just… I can't think of how else to protect you two…"

"That wouldn't protect us!" Miku blurted out. "We'd come in after you to save you again, and that would put us in danger! So it'd be the opposite effect!"

"I would give my life to save yours…" Haku said.

"And we would to save yours, or each others." Luka countered. "Fairness in all things, remember? But it's not fair to the other two who get left behind, is it?" Haku blinked at that, she'd never thought about that. "How would you feel if it were one of us, if it were me and I sacrificed myself for you two?"

Haku didn't have to answer that, she knew how she'd feel, and she knew how they'd feel. The sense of loss and despair that welled up within each of them threatened to overwhelm them each three fold because of their link, so much so to the point where Haku felt her vision grow cloudy for a moment as it nearly engulfed her. She could see what Luka was getting at and abruptly she couldn't feel the despair anymore because shame was so thick within her it drowned out everything else. She began to cry, bringing her hands up to her face and sobbing into them. "I-I'm s-s-sorry! I'm so sorryyyyy!" She couldn't get anything else out, it hurt too badly. Her chest was constricting and she couldn't believe her own actions. This entire situation was just so stressful for all of them that she'd lost sight of the bigger picture due to the needs of the moment. She felt arms going around her, heard gentle shushing noises from the other two, and clung desperately to them both. She needed them, loved them more than anything, more than life itself. She could feel the same from therm, like a golden glow from them in the back of her cybermind. She would do anything for them, but they wouldn't let her do anything. They were all three checks and balances for the other two, it was just this time she'd needed checked. These thoughts all flew between them along their link as she cried, and it was the warm feeling of love that finally slowed then stopped her tears. She pulled back a bit and began to wipe at her eyes and they loosened their grip on her for a moment. As she was drying her eyes with the sleeve of her sweater her gaze swung down and she saw the magazine still in Miku's grip, and she blinked. "Miku-chin, what is that?'

"Huh?" She glanced down at her hand. "A magazine?"

"No, I mean the a-article." She still had a sniffle or two but she reached out for the magazine and Miku let her have it. She glanced at the article on the back cover then flipped it open to the indicated page. "Winter hot springs tour…" Her eyes scanned down the list curiously showing various reviews for different natural onsens in the area..

"Oooooooooohhh a hot springs sounds amaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaazing…" Miku positively gushed.

"Not that we can really afford one…" Luka said, then blinked as Haku held up the page.

"Look, one that's been closed down." She pointed at the page and they all looked at it.

"'Temporarily closed due to building code violations, dates for renovation to be announced.'" Luka read aloud. "That's interesting, but what does that have to do with…" She trailed off as she looked up at the two extremely hopeful looks on her girlfriend's faces. "Oh, no, absolutely not."

"It's not like anyone's using it!" Miku exclaimed. "No one would know we were there!"

"We wouldn't be taking anything from anyone…" Haku put in carefully, if a bit hopefully. "It could be a useful refuge, for a little while at least. Who would think to look for us there?"

Seeing the cute looks on her girlfriend's faces Luka's resolve wavered, and she looked down to the article again. After a moment or two she bit her lower lip, and Haku knew they had her. It was so rare for her to show an outward sign of consideration like that even to them in private, and she could feel the other girl caving the hot water through their mental link. "Okay BUT!" She said as Miku immediately let out a cheer when Luka agreed. "We take a look around first, alright? We make absolutely positively certain that it's closed down before we do anything at all. If there's anyone there we leave. Agreed?"

"'Kaaaaaaaaaay!" Miku called in a singsong voice.

They all turned and headed even further toward the edge of the city in the direction they'd left the giant SUV parked behind an old boarded up brick bonding. The other two girls flanked her and took up either of her hands as they walked, and for a moment Haku couldn't figure out why until she realized the lingering traces of her guilt must have been coming through the connection. They walked hand in hand for nearly an hour before they made it back, casting glances over their shoulders the entire time to look for anyone following them. In an effort to throw off any pursuit they ducked through several sections of buildings, in the front and out the back. Apartment buildings and a laundromat and even a bar, getting a few odd looks from the occasional stranger seeing three pretty young girls out at night by themselves in a part of town they shouldn't be. The last was the boarded up building itself. It seemed to have gained a couple of squatters since that afternoon but they hurried on trying to avoid attention. Once out back they found the massive Karlmann King right where they'd left it, and it took only a moment's thought to connect with the computer to unlock the doors. They'd never actually found a key to the thing but she'd adjusted the security on the heavily firewalled machine to allow access only to the three of them. They didn't need a key to lock or unlock it or even to start or stop the engine. They could literally do all of that with their minds.

Once inside the vehicle they didn't waste any time in getting on the road. Anyone who may have been following them carefully through those buildings would need a few moments at each to make sure they hadn't gone to ground in any of them. Luka slid behind the wheel and the engine came to life with a loud rumble. Haku made as if to get in the back but Miku didn't let her hand go, and when she looked around the petite girl pulled her up into the front seat with her and closed the door. She pushed Haku down into the seat then turned to sit in her lap much as she had the other day when Haku had pulled her up here. She wasn't sure why this was happening but she hardly needed an excuse to cuddle Miku, pulling her back against her and wrapping her arms around her waist. As soon as the vehicle made it out onto open road they all relaxed a little bit and with a sigh of relief Miku shook her head back a bit and her hair seemed to stain light blue as though an ink blot were spreading over the long single ponytail. Her hazel eyes changed back to their naturally more vivid green as well. A moment later the other two followed suit, Luka's hair staining pink and her eyes brightening to blue while Haku's hair bleached to white and her eyes turned red. They had to be careful in public but in private none of them wanted to be anything but what the other two loved.

Miku opened and passed around boxes of pocky, propping Luka's on the center shifting column so she could reach it, then she handed teas around. Haku would have taken some but she was still feeling ashamed of herself and she buried her face in Miku's back trying to hide it. She could feel their concern at noticing her feeling though, and she thought that in some ways this connection could be decidedly inconvenient when she didn't want to be noticed. The shorter girl in her lap twisted around to look at Haku meaningfully. "It's okay Haku-chin. Your heart was in the right place, we just needed to help keep you from doing something silly that's all."

Haku wasn't convinced but she nodded anyway. She would do anything for these two beautiful creatures… she couldn't stop that through from flowing out to them and that golden glow of love came back from them again. Luka glanced at therm and smiled that small private smile before putting her eyes back on the road. "I think she needs some convincing. Miku-chin." Without hesitating Miku leaned her head in to press their lips together gently. Haku went rigid with surprise for a moment then melted into it. Between the golden feeling of love from them both and the feel of Miku's lips as well as the feeling of Miku feeling their lips she had no chance. The light blue haired girl melted too, and she couldn't tell which of them moaned first, couldn't be sure whose tongue sought out whose first. Her mind was filled with the other girl as they clung to each other needfully, desires beginning to awaken in both that they'd all been too stressed while being on the run to indulge in. They might not have been able up stop themselves doing more but abruptly the hulking SUV swerved alarmingly and they both let out shrieks of shock and pulled apart to look up. "Sorry!" Luka said, twitching the wheel back into place. "Oh my god sorry."

"Luka-chin, what in the-"

"That kiss!" The pink haired beauty exclaimed, her cheeks glowing. "There's something so… lewd about feeling other people getting… pleasure like that! It's like peeping but a hundred times over!"

"You said to convince her!" Miku said plaintively.

"I said 'convince' her, not 'delve her being'!" Luka replied. "Just… just can we please not get… get all hot like that while I'm driving?" She gulped a lungful of air. "Feeling the equivalent of three times the sudden heat…"

Haku felt that same feeling she hadn't paid full attention to earlier coming from Miku, and judging by the look on Luka's face she could feel the mischief building within the petite girl as well. "Well…" the petty green eyed girl said deliberately locking eyes with Haku to avoid looking in the direction of the driver's seat. "I think it might be fun to continue and see how well she does, don't you Haku-chin?"

"Eh?!" Luka exclaimed at the same time as Haku even as Miku went for her neck. She felt lips touch just above her collar bone, felt Miku feeling her neck with her lips, and instinctively let her head roll to the side so she could reach easier. She felt like her body was catching fire and she writhed breath the other girl. The car swerved again but this time it was because Luka was flailing at Miku's arm. "S-Stop! Miku-chin!"

The shorter girl fell into a fit of giggles. "Oh my lookit that! The famously composed and collected Megurine Luka all flushed and out of sorts!" She hid a laugh behind a hand and Luka shot a glare at her.

"You're riling up poor Haku-chin more than you are me you know."

Miku turned a wide green eyed look on Haku who was panting hotly with her tongue slightly out. Now paying attention to the feelings she was getting from Haku down their link her own face flushed. "H-Haku-chin? Did I really… I mean the heat coming from you…!" she glanced down at Haku's groin causing her to shift and fidget beneath the petite girl on her lap. "Did I really get to you that much?" She asked, but she knew the answer from the link. Gingerly she reached a hand up to run a fingertip lightly along the neck she'd kissed at a moment before and Haku felt a shiver run through her whole body. "Could it be that your neck is your weak spot, Haku-chin?"

"S-Stop it…" Haku panted breathlessly. As much as she wanted her girlfriends right then she was feeling a little toyed with.

Miku laughed. "Oh Haku-chin, it's okay, I'm sorry. I was just teasing." She leaned over to reach for a pocky stick and placed it against Haku's lips. Haku glared at her as she slowly caught her breath. Miku sighed, poking at her lips with the strawberry biscuit stick. "If it makes you feel better, Luka-chin's weak point is her ears."

"Miku-chin!" Luka's reproach just made Miku giggle.

"Oh come on, what's the big deal? We're girlfriends, shouldn't we be okay with knowing these things about each other?"

"Then what's your weak point, Miku-chin?" Haku challenged, and abruptly the other girl blushed. Haku leaned forward and licked at the tip of the pocky but didn't accept it, showing the other girl that forgiveness was a compromise. Miku fidgeted and looked to Luka, but the pink haired beauty just shrugged at her.

"You got yourself into this." She told her. "It's your own fault."

Miku bit her lower lip and tried but couldn't make herself meet Haku's gaze. "M… my…" she fidgeted nervously and lifted a corner of her sweater with the hand not holding the pocky to twist the fabric in her fingers. "My… uhm…" she swallowed then gave a little pout. "W-Why do I have to say it? It's embarrassing to say out loud and besides you can see the thought in my mind anyways!" They could, that was true, but Haku let her eyes close halfway and she leaned her head back away from the strawberry treat. Miku whined and pushed it up towards her lips again.

"You said ours out loud." Luka pointed out the obvious. "Fair's fair."

"Whaaaaaaa okay fine!" Miku swallowed hard and had to force the words out. "M-My inner th-thighs…" She gave Haku such a piteous look that after a moment she smiled at the light blue haired girl and leaned her head down to take the pocky with her lips. Miku brightened a little bit and Haku leaned forward to offer the other end to her. It was a cheesy but still sweet moment as they shared the pocky stick with just their lips.

"Any time someone wants to give me an address that would be great." Luka's crystalline voice was a flat no nonsense tone and Miku wilted again.

"I'm sorry, I was just playing around…" She ventured, but when Luka didn't respond she dropped her gaze to stare at the floor dejectedly. Haku read the address aloud and as the giant vehicle lumbered along the tone in the car grew strained. On the one hand she wanted to meditate and fix it, the urge to bring the conflict to a close pushing her to say something. On the other hand if she did she'd just be reinforcing in their minds that everything acting like that was okay. Then it hit her that she was thinking like a mother might when reproaching an unruly child. She winced at herself and hoped dearly that neither of them would catch that along the connection… but they both did. "CHILD?!" Miku demanded.

"Really Haku-chin?" Luka said flatly.

"I didn't mean…!" Haku let out sigh of frustration. "This link is really inconvenient in some ways…" she muttered.

"Oh I'm sorry if sharing your whole self with the women you love is inconvenient!" Miku glared, her earlier upset flashing to anger.

"That's not what I meant!" Haku objected.

"No I guess not! I wouldn't understand because I'm just a child, ne?!" She retorted.

"Well you're certainly behaving like one now." Haku regretted the words the second they left her lips. Miku's face flashed from anger to hurt and back again in a matter of moments. Abruptly the connection between them broke and without another word Miku scrambled off of Haku's lap and crawled into the back of the huge SUV. The anger of the moment after the passion from mere minutes ago brought tears to her eyes immediately, and the sense of loss with their connection broken was sharp and lonely. She leaned around to look into the back to find Miku huddled in a ball with her knees drawn up to her chest and her arms around her legs with her face buried against therm. " Miku-chin… I'm s-sorry…" she let out a little sob, but the other girl didn't move. Haku turned back around to face front, sparing a glance at Luka. The pink haired beauty had her eyes fixed on the road, and Haku sniffled and turned to the passenger window. She set her arm on the edge of it and laid her face on her arm, doing her best to keep from weeping out loud. She didn't understand how things had gone so bad so suddenly, and she didn't look up again the entire rest of the way to their destination.

When they pulled into the empty lot and parked as close to the building as possible the three girls got out of the car. Haku locked it with a thought as they all moved to the front door of the resort building quietly, their earlier upsets suppressed for the moment as their senses went on high alert. Their ears strained for any sound as Luka tried the handle. It jiggled but didn't budge. "Locked." She said. They glanced around and Miku pointed toward a back wooden fence and gate. They made their way over to it and tried it to but it was also locked. The gate proved less of an obstacle however as it took only a quick boost of Miku's foot for Luka to get her high enough to gracefully flip over top of it, and a moment later they heard the click of the latch and the gate swung open.

"I'd think there would be some sort of security alarm or something." Luka said as she stepped through.

"Why? It's supposed to be closed down." Miku replied,

Haku ran an eye over the outside wall of the building until she located the switch box and moved over to it, the others trailing behind her. She opened it up and looked on at the old sickly green display screen then scoffed. "What is it?" Luka asked, concerned. "Can you not disarm it?" Haku reached in, grabbed a red wire, and yanked it loose. The display beeped then read 'offline.' She turned to raise an eyebrow at the pink haired beauty and Luka shrugged. "Too easy? Sorry, I wasn't doubting you, just that nothing ever seems easy anymore."

The resort building itself was relatively straight forward as far as design went, and they wandered from room to room calling out "Hello?" and "Excuse me?" until they'd searched all over and found no one. Haku wasn't sure exactly what building codes had been violated to result in the closure but it seemed safe enough. They found bedrooms and towels and bathroom necessities and everything, and once they'd brought in everything they'd need and picked out a room to use near the hot springs entrance they gathered bath necessities and went to wash, eager for a long hot soak in the naturally hot water. They stripped and rushed through their washing up in their hurry and as soon as they were out in the open air with the cold caressing their naked skin they all shivered. The closest pool was big enough for them though and they lowered themselves in with little moans and sighs of pleasure at the hot spring. Haku enjoyed several minutes just letting the water soak into her, wiggling her toes beneath the surface and shifting side to side a little until she found the most comfortable spot. After a time she glanced up to see the other two staring at her, and she batted her red eyes at them.

"What?" She asked blushing slightly.

Miku averted her gaze flushing a bit as well. "You're just so exoticfully beautiful it's not even fair."

Haku's blush deepened and she glanced away herself. All she could think to mutter in response was "'Exoticfully' isn't a word, Miku-chin…" A sudden slosh of water was all the warning she got before the shorter girl slid up against her and glomped on. Haku was suddenly glad they weren't connected right then because the feel of Miku's bare body sliding against hers was very nearly rapture enough without having it echoed in her mind from the other girls. "What-?!"

"Haku-chin I'm sorry." Miku began to let out a gushing flow of words as she was so prone to do. "I was just trying to be playful earlier and I wasn't thinking about how I was making you feel I thought I was being like super cute and I didn't see how you could possibly be so embarrassed when we're girlfriends but then I had to say my weak point too and it was sooooooo hard to say it out loud like holy crap I thought at the time you were just trying to be mean back but once I went off to think on my own in the back of the car well actually I guess I was totes pouting really I should be honest I realized you were just trying to make me understand and Luka-chin was totally right to be annoyed cuz I was being a pain and making her swerve off the road which is soooooo bad and I'm so sorry to you both please forgive me."

A feeling of relief flooded through her and Haku took the other girl in her arms. Miku was more than happy to squeeze in more tightly against her and Haku tried hard to ignore how good their wet naked bodies felt sliding together. "Miku-chin I love you more than life itself. But you and Luka-chin are outgoing and extroverted people. I'm more reserved and introverted. Sharing my entire self with you both is glorious and wonderful, but I would never dream of letting anyone else in. My mind is my sanctuary and I need to be able to mentally recharge because interacting with other people is hard for me."

Miku nodded against her chest and squeezed her around the middle tightly. "I understand, I'm sorry."

Unwilling to sit off you the side anymore Luka slid up to them and wrapped them both in her arms. Sandwiched between the two deliciously soft naked beauties it was all Haku could do to pay attention when the pink haired beauty spoke. "It was just a misunderstanding. We have a lot in common but we're still different people with different needs."

Haku nodded at that and let herself relax against her girlfriends in the hot spring. "This is the most relaxed I've been in weeks." She murmured softly.

"Me too…" Luka replied, and they could all feel the heat rising between them that had nothing to do with the naturally hot water. They glanced at each other, each trying to gauge the other, and though they all wanted to give in to the temptation Luka shook her head. "I'm still not convinced we're completely isolated here. We should probably… wait and make sure."

"But we can hide here for awhile?" Miku asked hopefully, and Luka nodded.

"We can try it. All we can do is see what happens."


	31. Vocaloid Academy Chapter 31

AUTHOR NOTE: Hey guys, Yuri warning for this chapter! Things get NSFW later in the chapter so as before anyone not reading for that can skip it at the end safely without missing anything, but there is also a tasteful non-sexual nude scene in the beginning as well. One last thing: The NSFW part at the end is much shorter than previous scenes like it, but there's a specific reason for it I was trying to illustrate which will hopefully become clear right before that part starts!

Also as before, thanks for the continued reviews! It heartens me to see them even though this FanFic is like nine miles long already! But there's more to come, so I hope everyone continues to enjoy!

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In the early morning hours of predawn Haku's eyes fluttered open as she lay on the large futon pad on the floor of the room of the closed down hot springs resort they'd taken refuge in, and for a few moments she just lay there as conscious memory came back to her. They'd been sleeping in this building since they'd gotten here and she had to admit it was a lot better than squatting in an abandoned building with no power or heat, and it was certainly more comfortable than squeezing in to a car, however large and luxurious the hulking SUV they had appropriated from her parents was. She shifted a bit to look down and saw the naked forms of her girlfriends still asleep beside her. Miku flopped in the middle between her and Luka, face down in a pillow, her arms flung out to either side around the waists of the girls to either side of her. Her light blue hair fanned all over her back and her nose was barely peeking over the edge of the pillow enough to breathe. It was ridiculously silly and adorable at the same time. Luka was on her side facing Miku opposite from Haku, her gorgeous pink locks framing her beautiful sleeping face like some kind of slumbering princess, one arm around Miku in turn. Haku could never believe how pretty the two of them were, it always made her so jealous to think of it, but she had to remind herself that they saw her in the same way. Luka called her an angel, and Miku said she was exotic. She looked down herself and frowned, she didn't feel particularly exotic or angel like either one. She supposed she was pretty enough, in a way, but… as gorgeous as they were? She didn't see it, but she supposed there was a reason for the old saying about beauty being in the eye of the beholder.

She started to gently slide to the side a bit thinking she could slip off the futon without being noticed, but Miku moaned quietly in protest in her sleep and her arm constricted around Haku's waist a bit. So cute… she felt her insides melt a little and she had to twist around onto her tummy in a reverse rolling motion to get free. Miku moaned in protest again, a little louder this time, and her arm now free of Haku's waist came up to find the pillow she'd been laying on and wrapped around that instead in a sort of substitute. After a moment the petite girl shifted her face from her own pillow to Haku's, breathing deeply. Haku padded over to the dresser where they'd stashed their clothes the night before. The resort building had a laundry room in it but they still only had the clothes they'd fled in so they had to wash them every night and sleep naked, which had taken some getting used to for Haku. She'd taken to doing the laundry for the three of them each night, slipping off while using the bathroom to run the machines. Now she took their clothes out and laid them out atop the dresser for them, tugged her underwear on then her black pants, white shirt, and socks, then quietly slipped out of the room.

The kitchen wasn't as grand as she'd imagined a resort world have but it was certainly larger than a regular house kitchen. They'd stored what little food they'd had in it and had found a few non perishables in the cupboards to supplement it but the fridge had been emptied out. Once learning their hair and eye color changing trick wasn't any more convincing a disguise than donning a wig and colored contacts so far as their government trackers were concerned they'd had to be more careful about when and where they went for food or other things. Luka and Miku had wanted to only have one of them in public at a time to minimize exposure but they'd all had that argument about each being willing to sacrifice for the other two and none of them wanting that, so they'd backed down about it. They still managed to get their way more often than not though, since they'd also agreed Luka should keep her part time job as an assistant mechanic both because it paid the best and because it gave her access to vehicle hardware, and Miku just happened to stay home with Haku while she worked on the computer in the SUV. She'd gone in to quit her part time job feeling ashamed after only a couple weeks but the senile old man that owned the bathhouse hadn't even remembered her that day. She'd written a note and left quietly hoping he wouldn't be mad at her whenever he did recall her face.

And thus the days had passed hiding in their refuge, developing a routine. Haku would get up first as she usually did, make breakfast, they'd drive Luka to work, come back, work on the car, clean up after themselves, pick up Luka from work, have what meal they could put together, have a bath, then chat until falling asleep. It was a continuation of the simplistic life they'd started while on the run, except now they were in hiding. They couldn't stay that way forever though. They needed to find a fix to this situation sooner rather than later, even if they were relatively safe here. But how did one take on an entire government…? It seemed an impossible and insurmountable task, one she didn't feel prepared for. But she had to… she had to get them out of this… she'd promised her girlfriends. She would do anything for them…

Looking down at the counter in front of her she sighed. She'd been standing there staring at nothing lost in thought. Opening the fridge she withdrew a stack of paper thin rice wraps and laid them out, then took out a little pack of boiled eggs, bean sprouts, and a little tempura they had left over from the night before, as well as the sweet red bean buns. The kitchen had a microwave but she thought it would make the buns soggy and she wanted them flaky so she turned the oven on and unwrapped the buns and put them in. Next she put water on to boil, sliced the eggs thinly while it heated up, soaked the wraps to they could be rolled, then one at a time layered everything else into the wraps, then fished some tangy sauce packets out to flavor them with and rolled them up. They weren't anything special, she wasn't exactly a chef or anything, but they would made for a light refreshing lunch for later. With six rice wraps made she put two into a shopping bag she'd kept to carry Luka's lunch, then added two small pieces of chocolate she'd saved as well. Three bottles of lightly sweetened cheap black tea would go with the bean buns for breakfast, and she had two more chocolates for Miku at lunch time. Even if it was all simplistic and cheap it still gave her a warm fuzzy feeling to do this for the other two girls, and she found she looked forward to seeing them enjoy it. With everything prepared she took the bean buns out of the oven and wrapped them in a hand cloth, put the four unbagged wraps in the fridge, tucked the tea bottles under one arm, hooked the shopping bag with Luka's lunch on one wrist, then took up the buns to carry back up to the room where she'd left her girlfriends sleeping. Slipping quietly into the room she found Miku now curled into a ball against Luka's side while the pink haired beauty lay on her back with one arm around the more petite girl and the other over her head.

Flushing at the sight Haku set the food down and moved up to Luka's free side. The slightly taller girl was so incredibly gorgeous that even at the most normal or average of moments she'd catch herself staring, but this… naked on her back with an arm over her head, Haku was absolutely positive that there could not possibly be any more perfect example of soft elegant womanhood in the entire world. Her hip bones turned her thighs into a perfect heart, her mound was exactly the right V shape, her sides were tender and her tummy gave Haku a strange urge to nip at her belly button, and the way her natural ample breasts lifted from the raised arms and then sloped off to either side with the gravity… Haku couldn't help herself, and she leaned her face down to Luka's chest, letting her lips and tip of her nose brush the delicate skin of the breast closest to her. It rippled in a natural way so tantalizing Haku had to fight an urge to moan aloud. Keeping her lips shut she let them lay to either side of the soft nipple and lay her cheek against the side of the boob. She brought her arm up to lay gently across the other girl's tummy so she could cup the opposite globe thinking she could have died and gone to heaven in that moment. Luka's skin and breast were so unbelievably silky smooth it was total bliss. The way the curve of the underside of the boob ceased where it became chest was a delicious spot as well and she couldn't decide what part was the nicest as she lay there. She thought this was her new favoritest place in the world.

"Comfy? Ow!" Luka's crystalline voice had startled Haku and she had to force her muscles to relax after tensing up in embarrassment as though she'd been doing something wrong. She had squeezed Luka's sensitive chest too hard when she'd reacted and she blushed but leaned forward to kiss it better.

"I'm sorry." She apologized softly.

Luka just giggled at her, "It's okay, as long as you let me try out this new spot on you later. It looks nice."

"Deal." Haku replied, nuzzling the breast beneath her cheek.

"Mmm'zit morning?" Miku's green eyes came open part way and she looked up groggily.

"Almost." Luka replied. The petite girl muttered something incoherent and buried her face against the taller girl's shoulder. They both giggled at how ridiculously adorable Miku was even when half asleep, but Haku knew how to fix this.

"I heated up breakfast." She said in an almost casual way. That brought Miku's head right up and she tried to blink sleepiness away.

"W… what is it?" She asked.

Haku really didn't want to move from this divine spot but she also really wanted give them the buns. So she sat up and reached behind herself for the towel as the other two sat up to watch. She placed the towel down on the futon in front of them and unwrapped it. "Sweet red bean buns."

Miku sat bolt upright with a squee of delight and snatched one up immediately and took a big bite chewing happily. Luka took one up looking at it speculatively. "Are these what you snuck off to get the other night at the store?"

"One thing." Haku admitted, picking up the remaining one to lift almost daintily to her mouth, but she didn't take a bit yet. When they looked at her quizzically she just smiled at them. "You'll get the other this afternoon."

"Haku-chin you're doing that mysterious exotic thing again." Miku accused playfully between bites.

"But it suits her so well." Luka told the green eyed girl, and they nodded at each other.

"And she always does everything before we even think about it, like washing our clothes for us! She makes a great wife!" Miku blurted, and they all froze and stared at each other.

"W… wife…?" Haku finally managed feeling her cheeks heating.

Miku dropped her bun which landed in her lap as she put her hands to her mouth in embarrassment. "Oh my gosh! I didn't mean like you're a great wife cuz you do the wifely things! I meant cuz you're so attentive and caring! It wasn't like a… a…!" She paused s moment with a befuddled look on her adorable face. "... Is one girl saying a sexist thing to another girl still sexist?" She flushed harder.

"I… don't know…?" Luka said hesitantly eying Haku dubiously.

"A… wife…" Haku hated how readily she always seemed to blush, but this wasn't the same as being silly embarrassed or turned on. This was entirely different and she wasn't sure how. All she could think of now was… "Luka-chin's… and Miku-chin's… wife…?"

Miku didn't usually blush as easily as Haku did but her cheeks were glowing just as hotly now and she raised her hand to flail objectionably. "No! That's now what I meant! Nonono!"

"You… don't want her to be our wife…?" Luka asked quietly in confusion, and Haku felt her emotions do a complete flip around from embarrassment to mortification, a near perfect mirror of Miku's reaction.

"What?! No! I mean, yes! I mean! Uhm!" Miku lifted part of the blanket and wrung it in her hands. "I do… want that! I just…! I meant that she's amazing! And I was just trying to… say how wonderful…! And…! And…!"

Her girlfriend looked so flustered and embarrassed that Haku felt her heart going out to the pretty light blue haired girl. She thought she understood, she thought she wanted the same. It was an alluring thought, being married to them… being their wife… she set her bun slowly to the side as the other two watched her with looks of uncertain worry on their beautiful faces, then she turned back to Miku and abruptly launched herself at the shorter girl. Miku had time only to let out a squeal of surprise as Haku bore her down to the futon and pressed her lips to Miku's, trying to ignore for the moment the delicious feeling of the other girl's nudity. Green eyes widened in shock then lowered in rapture and Haku felt arms circling her shoulders as she insistently kissed the fluster out of Miku. The petite girl moaned against Haku's lips and she tried to get a little creative in her response, tugging at her lower lip with her tongue and lip even as Miku's tongue slid against hers, but in the end she was enjoying it as much as the other girl was and they just enjoyed the fireworks going off in their mind's for long moments before Haku leaned her head back and they both let out little gasps of protest. "I love you Miku-chin. I'll be your wife."

"H-Haku-chin…" Miku said breathlessly, panting up at her. "You're waaaaaaaaaaaay too smart to be 'the' wife, like as in laundry and cooking and stuff, but I love you and would be your wife."

Haku turned to look up at the pink haired beauty watching them. Luka held out her arms and Haku shifted to jump into them. She would have born Luka to the futon in the same way if she could've but the blue eyed girl was slightly the taller and she just caught and squeezed Haku to her naked form. She tried to put that aside for the moment and leaned up to put a kiss to Luka's lips as well, and they let their tongues twine for long moments as Haku weathered more fireworks in her mind. Just as breathing was becoming a problem Luka twisted and Haku found herself landing on the futon beside Miku with a muffled little fwump as the gorgeous idol sat atop her. The sun had begun to rise outside while Haku had been cooking and now a ray of light shining through the window unnoticed until now landed on the pink haired beauty casting her in a picturesque light. Haku felt her breath leave her in woosh as she stared up at such a glorious and perfect form. The look in Luka's blue eyes though was one of desire, of hunger, and not for their breakfast. "I love you Haku-chin, and I would definitely marry you if it were legal for two girls."

"I love you Luka-chin." Was all Haku could manage, her silvery voice choked up from emotion. Miku leaned up on one side and nipped at Haku's ear lobe, and she let out a little moan in response as Luka leaned down toward her. She knew where this was going, wanted it to go there, needed them so badly. They hadn't had a lot of chance for much in the way of physical intimacy while being on the run so far and they were all three wound up over it… but… it was a huge effort to force herself to raise the objection. "Luka-chin… you're going to be late… for work… if we…"

They all froze where they were, hovering over each other. Green, blue, and red eyes all warring in conflict between their wants and needs against the obligations of life. Haku realized she was panting, her heartbeat thundering in her ears, that heat they brought up within her core spreading, and she tried to take deep breaths to calm herself. After a few moments Luka narrowed her eyes. "I'm more than a little tempted to say it would be worth it."

Haku reached a hand up to cup her cheek tenderly. "How about a compromise. You go to work, and we'll do what we need to here, and then after we pick you up from work… then I'll… well… let's call it a promise with a surprise twist?"

"Surprise twist?!" Miku gushed. "What surprise?! I wanna know!"

Luka swallowed hard then nodded. "It will be hard to wait all day… but you're right. Okay then." She leaned down and pressed another kiss to Haku's lips, this one full of promise and anticipation, and Haku returned it eagerly. Not content to wait her turn Miku stuck her face in the moment their lips parted and stole Luka's mouth, and Haku thought it an extremely pleasant view from her angle beneath them watching the two gorgeous naked women kissing above her. Once they'd finally parted and gotten their breathing under control they finished their breakfast and Haku got to watch happily as they dressed themselves. She hummed a few bars of ' _Aishiteru_ ' idly as she got her eyeful, and they cast playfully reproachful glances at her while they arranged themselves for the day. Once they were finished and ready Haku stood up and handed Luka the bag with her lunch in it with a smile and got one of Luka's small private smiles in return. They made their way down to the front area and the massive Karlmann King sitting outside waiting for them. She reached out to it with her mind, connecting via her cybernetic receiver, and an instant later the doors unlocked and the engine roared to life. It was Miku's turn to drive so Luka climbed into the front passenger seat and Haku stepped up into the back area. They closed the doors, Miku threw the thing in gear, and they pulled away down the empty road.

"This is almost kinda sweet, don't you think?" Miku bubbled as she drove toward the city. "I mean getting up every day together, cuz like I totally love waking up beside you both, then driving Luka-chin to work, then doing things around the house, er, onsen, I guess, then picking Luka-chin up again from work, having the super cliche 'hi how was your day' discussion, going home, having dinner together like a couple, cleaning up, bathing, laying down to bed together, it's like totally a sweet daily routine and I can see the charm in it cuz it's like so totally almost normal it's quaint and I could almost see living like this except… well... I mean…"

"It would mean hiding for the rest of our lives?" Haku said into the silence when Miku's flow of words trailed off, and the petite girl nodded sadly.

"That and it would mean forsaking who and what we are." Luka added. "I agree, it's a very charming little life, but even if we could stay here forever, which we can't because we have no idea when they will rebuild this resort…" She gestured back the way they'd come at the natural hot springs they were hiding in, closed down temporarily for some sort of building code violation. "Even if we could, I for one don't think I could ignore our… origins. Ignore what we are and what we're supposed to be doing. I'm worried about the souldrinkers and what's been going on with that since we left."

"I'm worried about how mom and dad are doing…" Miku put in quietly.

"I'm worried about Gumi-chan and Teto-chan." Haku said. "They were just getting ready to go out hunting when we left."

"At least they have Gackpo to guide them." Luka's crystalline voice held a commiserating tone.

"I want to go home…" Miku murmured sadly.

They all wanted to go home, and they all knew they couldn't, not with the entire government after them… they needed to figure out a way out of this, needed to do what they could to fix things… All Haku could think about the entire time they drove Luka to work was her promise to the other two that she'd think of something to get them out of this, and she would absolutely do her best, but… so far all of her efforts, all of her attempts at reasoning her way along had each met a dead end. The hulking SUV they'd gotten from her parent's wrecked lab was still damaged, the lights and the V-Core powering it were still fading in and out and the diagnostic terminal was still not even turning on. She was still having those red errors periodically pop up in her vision causing painful lances of agony to shoot through her head, and without the terminal in the vehicle she couldn't figure out why. They still had little to no money and it was dangerous for them to go out to try to do anything about it even with their ability to change their hair and eye color through conscious control of their nanites when as far as the government agents tracking them were concerned they were just changing wigs and contacts. It seemed like a wasted trick and Haku was particularly sour about that after all the effort she'd put into figuring it out. She felt like she was spinning her wheels and it was extremely disheartening. She had to figure this out… for them… for Luka… for Miku...

… … … … ...

"Are you sure this is a good idea…?" Ia asked in a whisper so quiet Meiko probably couldn't hear her more than a few centimeters away, but she couldn't keep quiet, not with the anxiety bubbling within her chest. The short haired girl paused with her arms partway down into the hatch in the floor and looked back over her shoulder.

"We have to find out what's going on don't we?" Meiko asked, but her tone said it was a rhetorical question so Ia just wrung her hands. Letting out a sigh the short haired girl leaned back up out of the hatch in the floor and stood to put her hands on Ia's shoulder's. "Haku said she'd help us if we could prove we weren't here because we wanted to be, right?"

"I think…" Ia swallowed. "I'm sure she'd help us anyway… um… if we asked?"

Meiko shook her head, her short brown locks swaying above her eyes. "I don't know, maybe. She's not the same girl I knew in University. She's… changed. Maybe it's because of what we are now, maybe it's because of Hatsune-san's and Megurine-san's influences, I can't really say for sure. She might help, but…"

"She would!" Ia said earnestly. "I just know it! They're good people, Meiko-tan! They…" She trailed off, embarrassed by her own sudden vehemence, and muttered quietly. "I know they would help us…"

"Well either way, they can't right now, they said they don't have the ability." Meiko squeezed Ia's shoulders with her hands in a brief sort of pseudo hug before turning back to the hatch in the floor. "We have to help her to help us. Now come on, let's go." The taller girl was right and she knew it, but Ia still hesitated. If they got caught… Meiko glanced back up at her and sighed. "If you really can't do it, then fine, you can wait here for me to get back."

"Like I really would!" Ia objected, and Meiko just smiled at her and crawled down into the hatch. Ia hesitated again despite her protest, then bit her lip and leaned down to follow. The hatch was narrow and the crawl space between the floor and the ceiling of the lower level was cramped to say the least. The building didn't look all that old from the outside but the place sure seemed dusty. How long did it really take to get a layer of dust? She felt the impulse to wipe her hands every meter they crawled but she knew she'd just get dusty again and so she resisted the urge. When they finally reached the end of the maintenance duct they slid silently along the edge until they came to a small few inch wide vent branch. Meiko moved passed it then somehow managed to squeeze herself small enough to rotate around inside the narrow shaft without making any noise. Ia couldn't help but be impressed with her flexibility as they put their ears to the vent hole. For a long while they didn't hear anything. "Are you sure this is the right one?" She whispered.

"I'm sure." Meiko replied just as quietly. It turned out they had to wait for nearly a quarter of an hour before they heard anything through the vent that led down into Sarge's office; Ia nearly jumped when she heard his voice as she'd been absorbed in trying to get dust out from between her fingers. The door to the office was very audible as it flung open to admit the massive man, and although they couldn't see him his voice was clear.

"-mean you don't know where they are? They were here this morning, I saw them at muster and I haven't authorized them to leave the building today." There was a heavy thud of something being dropped onto something else.

"I mean they weren't at their duty stations, in the locker room or their quarters, and the lab techs say they haven't been in today. I've left orders that it anyone finds them to have them report to you." The voice of the second man was higher pitched than Sarge's was though still relatively deep. The second in command under their CO simply went by the moniker Stone, though whether it was supposed to sound like an actual name or just be intimidating was unclear. She didn't think it managed either outcome herself, just sounded silly.

"Well they'll turn up eventually, they're programmed to return by twenty hundred hours if possible, assuming they're even out of the building, and if they don't manage to at least make contact with a superior officer within three days of silence they shut down." The way he said that made Ia's blood run cold, like a final failsafe to keep them as property incase they got out of hand. She glanced up at Meiko to see the other girl's face twisted in frustrated despair.

"And if they decide to resist that directive?"

"They can't!" Sarge let out a guffaw. "Even if they wanted to, they're programmed to take no threatening action against any government official. They may be cyborgs, but in the end they aren't people, they're property, and they're just little girls besides. I can put them in their place easily enough." There was the noise of a fist smacking another fist, and Ia thought Meiko might burst from fury judging by the look on her face. "Besides, we have the two others still. They're almost ready to be brought online."

"Shall I reschedule your appointment this afternoon that you might look for the cyborgs?' Stone asked.

There was the sound of skin thudding into wood. "Are you insane? Rescheduling a meeting with a General is just asking for trouble. I'm still trying to keep him out of our business as it is, not give him more reasons to go sticking his beak in where it doesn't belong."

"Then we still aren't going to report our findings about the Vocaloid technology?"

"What's to report?" Came Sarge's reply. "I was given broad discretionary powers to deal with this cybernetics division as I saw fit. It gave me a new working arm, sure, but we don't know what else it can do yet. That's why I classified it and brought in… specialists… to do the research."

"Specialists." Stone echoed doubtful. "Meaning the various… dismissals… you have reversed to put your division together?"

Sarge's voice grew hard and threatening. "Every last one of the men and women I have reinstated commissions for are experts in their fields and as driven to making advancements in our cybernetics division as I am. Some are a little eccentric perhaps, but they all want the same things as I."

"To find a way to overcome disabilities?"

The sound of wood cracking under a powerful blow echoed up the vent shaft loud enough to make the two girls wince and cover their ears reflexively. "You overstep yourself, Stone! Get out!" Sarge screamed, and a moment later came the sound of a door opening and then closing again. They could hear their commanding officer muttering to himself angrily for some time after that but not clearly enough to make out, but there was apparently no more to be learned as after a time they heard his door open then close once more and then silence. Ia looked up to Meiko and tilted her head questioningly, and the short haired girl nodded. The had to be extra careful not to make any noise lest it echo down to Sarge's office that he might hear in the hallway, but they managed to slide along quietly enough until they got back to the hatch and out into the storage room they'd started in.

"That wasn't what I thought we were going to learn…" Meiko said dubiously, wrapping her arms around herself in a concerned way. Ia felt her heart go out to the taller girl and she felt an urge to reach out to her… but it made her embarrassed so she just stood still and waited. Of the two of them Meiko was always the decisive one, and for all she had the urge to lean in, she couldn't make herself do it. After a few moments Meiko turned around back to her. "Let's go see if we can find anything in his office."

Ia widened her pale eyes in response, "W-What?! What if we get caught?!"

"We're already risking that." Meiko replied. "You heard him, we're property to him, he doesn't give a damn about us. If we get caught in there we'll just say we heard we were supposed to report to him and were looking for him."

"What are we really going to find in his office?" Ia asked skeptically. "It's not like we'll stumble upon incriminating documents conveniently lying around or something. This isn't the age of paper reports you know."

Meiko thought about it for a few moments then sighed. "You're right, Haku is going to want data for proof, not our word on things…" She pondered for a minute then turned to head for the door. "Come on, let's go get a tablet first, then go to his office."

Ia wrung her hands nervously again as she followed the other girl out of the supply room, still thinking this was a bad idea, but when Meiko made up her mind that was usually the end of the discussion. Truth be told, deep down, she didn't want to turn back now anyway. As scary and dangerous as it was, she wanted to be free as much as the brown haired girl did, she just wasn't a very brave person and she knew it. She needed Meiko to lead her along, and so she followed her without trying to stop her. She felt the need for a bath after crawling through that duct though; her skin was practically crawling and she thought every eye would be on her dusty uniform, but no one they passed in the hallways cast so much as a second glance at them. They made it as far as the command center before they were stopped by an officer who told them the commander was looking for them. Meiko just nodded and said they were on the way to his office right then before brushing passed him as though on her way. As soon as his back was turned she casually snagged a tablet off a table as they brushed by and out a different door than they'd come in. Ia had no idea whose it was or if Meiko knew either but she doubted the other girl cared. She led the way down the hallways back to the office they had moments ago been spying on and didn't hesitate in walking right up to it and knocking. They waited for a few moments and when no answer came Meiko knocked again, then put her head in.

"Commander?" She asked, then looked back and nodded into the room. "He's still gone, come on." Ia was so nervous she thought her heart was going to hammer it's way out of her chest, and she glanced up and down the hallway before following the other girl inside. She didn't know how Meiko could be so decisive, so sure of herself, so always confident and in control. She admired it in her most of the time, but right now she wished Meiko would stop and show a little more caution. Once inside with the door closed they glanced around at the office; desk with laptop in front of the wall opposite the door, couch to one side, mini bar to the other, a few corner shelves with books, nothing super fancy but all of it telling. The books and bookshelves were covered with dust, obviously unused and untouched, whereas the bar had zero dust anywhere but many spills and stains where liquid had been sloshed and disregarded. The couch too was stained and had the fuzzy look of being often used, and the desk clanged emptily when they moved up to lean against it to look at the laptop. There was half a cigar in an ashtray beside the laptop and half a dozen partially filled glasses in various places around it, one overturned beside a huge crack along the edge of it. Their commander's propensities certainly were indicative of his habits and Ia felt her skin crawling thinking about the way she sometimes caught him leering at the two of them. Meiko reached out to tap at the keyboard on the laptop a few times. "Well I guess he's not quite as stupid as he seems, it's locked."

"I could… um… maybe run an algorithm crack on it…?" Ia suggested dubiously, but couldn't deny being relieved when Meiko shook her head.

"No, there's no telling if there's some sort of detection security in place. We could trip something without knowing it in the attempt." The short haired girls at down in Sarge's chair behind his desk and began opening drawers to look inside the empty sounding desk. The first drawer had nothing in it, the second a carton of cigars. The third one was empty as well, and the fourth… they blinked in surprise and Meiko reached in to pull out a tablet. "What's this?" Meiko asked curiously. She woke up the screen and the security check came up, but not with just a password, but a thumb print as well.

"Thumb print…?" Ia wondered curiously. "Is this his personal tablet or…?" She watched Meiko hold up the one they'd taken from the command room, and the two looked almost identical.

"Hmmmm…" Meiko eyed the ashtray carefully, the cigar in it, the glasses, and she lifted her gaze up to Ia's. "Think we can pull his thumbprint off something?"

Ia blinked then turned to look at the glasses and ashtray too. She knew Meiko had the same sort of forensics analyzers she herself did; they worked for a government agency after all, they had software that law enforcement had developed. The taller girl could have run the analysis as well as she could, but Ia was a bit faster at it so she let her 3D visual overlay her sight and watched as red scanning lines began to highlight the glasses and ashtray on the table, tracing glowing lines around where fingerprints were detectable through the clear glass. She thought she could almost feel her Vocaloid Chip processing the information, but that seemed silly too. Using her 3D analysis she found a host of fingerprints and registered them all in her internal memory, then turned to Meiko and nodded. "I've got his prints.'

Meiko held the tablet up for her, "Give it a try." Ia held her right hand up with her thumb out. It took no more than a thought on her part to organize the nanites in the tip of her thumb, and though she couldn't visually see it with her unaided eyes her 3D vision could still see some very faint motion as the tiny nanobots formed up on her thumb and exuded little bits of biomimetic fluid around them. When it was done she placed her thumb against the access button on the tablet. It scanned her nanite altered digit and errored, saying incorrect print and to try again. She altered her thumbprint through the biomimetic fluid once more and tried again, with another error. The third print she mimicked from her scans of the glasses turned out to be the right one though, and the tablet screen cleared granting access."Great work Ia-tan!" Meiko said, and Ia felt her insides warm at the compliment even as Meiko began flicking through the tablet. "Let's see… internal storage is practically empty, not a lot of apps… ah ha! Cloud drive."

"He stores everything on his cloud drive?" Ia asked curiously, glancing over Meiko's shoulder as she worked.

"Well probably for access no matter what he's on; tablet, laptop…" She gestured at the one on the desk as the cloud drive loaded his documents and their eyes widened. "Oh man!" Meiko said, tapping various documents. "Look at all this! Files on everything in the base! Personnel, directives, departmental structure…"

"This is like everything Yowane-san asked for!" Ia exclaimed.

"Not quite everything…" Meiko murmured then shrugged. "Most of it though. I guess Sarge needed a place to store things where other government officers couldn't get them." She set the files on the cloud drive to download to local memory then set the tablet on the table. "Here, transfer these as they download to our tablet."

Ia nodded and set the double transfer up by reaching out with her cybermind and connecting wirelessly to both tablets. In this way she was acting as a bridge, but she stored the files herself as well so they could look them over later on their own if they needed. Then she glanced up as Meiko stood from the chair. "This is really cutting it close to our directive of not taking any threatening action against the government. I feel like my skin is crawling."

"We aren't the ones who are going be doing anything." Meiko reminded her.

"No but… I mean, we know who's going to be getting this data. Yowane-san can't be intending to do anything to help Sarge with it, right?"

Meiko stopped a moment and stared at nothing. Ia thought the taller girl was wrestling with her programming, trying to justify things in such a way as to allow her to finish what they started. Finally she looked around and dark eyes fixed on pale. "You yourself said that Haku is a good person. That Hatsune-san and Megurine-san are good people." Ia nodded and Meiko shrugged. "If they're good people, then they can't be planning to intentionally harm anyone, just free themselves, ne?"

That seemed like a fairly thin line of reasoning… but it held up. Or at least the itching under her skin seemed to subside, and the files continued to transfer. They couldn't exactly make off with Sarge's tablet so they had to wait for the data transfer to finish, and finally it did. Ia let the connection beak and stashed the tablet behind the waistband of her uniform and covered it with her shirt as Meiko deleted the downloaded files from Sarge's device to return it to how it had been then put it back in the drawer it had come out off. Everything finally done they turned to leave, but just as they got to the office door it opened before they touched it and in walked the hulking giant of a man. They froze in surprise, Ia felt like the bottom dropped out of her stomach. They stared wide eyed him and his eyes narrowed dangerously. "You two aren't allowed in here without escort…" He said dangerously.

"We were just-" Ia's cybernetically enhanced senses perceived the blow coming from the giant man before it ever even came close to her, but she couldn't move away, paralyzed by her own programming. With arms the size of most men's legs the power behind the massive ham sized fist that connected with her head just beside her right eye sent her reeling off to the left, but her senses were momentarily blinded by the force of the powerful swing. When she could see and hear again all she could register was pain and her head ringing. She saw blood splattered on the carpet where she'd landed beside the sofa as she tried to lift her head, looking around hazily.

"She was just trying to explain! How dare you-" Meiko's feet left the carpet from the massive upper cut Sarge delivered to her jaw. She didn't get as much distance as Ia had but when she came back down from the height into the air she'd gained she hit the floor hard on her rump. Ia whimpered both in pain and in protest at the attack, her heart wrenching in her chest to see the other girl take the hit, but Meiko just spit out a gob of blood and glared up at the man above them.

"Clean yourselves up and report to the lab, the Doctor has some new tests to perform on you." Sarge said in his hard voice, as though he hadn't just hit them with enough force to have given them massive concussions had they not been cyborgs. The casual brutality of it made Ia want to cry but she thought if she did let out a sob it would make her already ringing head hurt even worse.

Meiko glanced over at Ia with a flat eyed expression. Tests in the lab by the Doctor meant pain the likes of which would make what they had just endured seem a refreshing spring breeze. They truly weren't people here… just machines… just property… Ia didn't want to go through it again, and the idea of it made her want to weep all the more. The two girls shared a look that passed between them, then Meiko looked back up at Sarge. Her voice was low, clearly furious at him, but she pitched her tone to not be outright disrespectful. "If it's… just tests… could I volunteer to take them all? Let Ia-tan be excused so she can run an… errand?"

Ia let out a groan of protest but her head was still ringing too hard for more than that, and Sarge raised an eyebrow. "Oh? What errand?"

Meiko started to speak, her teeth visibly bloody, and she had to put the back of her hand to her lips for a moment as though trying to keep back another gob of blood before she could talk. "Reconnaissance? Your trackers haven't found the Vocaloids yet, right? We thought perhaps we could help locate them." Not an untrue word in there, but put together to seem like something else. Ia wanted to object but when she moved her head too quickly she got woozy. She didn't want Meiko going into these tests alone, she wanted to protect the other girl. She knew she was doing this though; because Ia had the tablet, and it would mean disaster for them if he found it on her, but before she could get her wits working again Sarge seemed to decide he liked the idea.

"Alright, fine. You think you can do so much better with your enhanced senses? Go ahead Aria-san, get cleaned up and get out there. Sakine-san, you report to the Doctor." They managed to get themselves to their feet with winces and muffled moans and started to move around him, but he stopped them with a word without ever turning around, his voice low and threatening. "And if I ever catch you in here by yourselves again, no amount of nanites in your blood will save you from what I will do to you." It was an effort not to run from the office.

… … … … …

Haku let out a cry of excitement as the terminal in the Karlmann King lit up before her eyes as she connected the last replacement wire. She'd been tracing cables and rewiring for several days and now that she'd finally found the faulty ones the diagnostic terminal coming online was like a late Christmas present for her. Immediately Miku's head came around from the front seat. "Did you get it?!" She asked, then immediately followed up with a squeal of delight as she saw the screen rolling with boot up text. "Haku-chin you're a genius!" She bounded over the middle dash in the front to land beside Haku in the back, being careful not to stick her foot into the open floor hatch with all the cabling, and threw her arms around her. "Really and truly amazing!"

"I'm just glad we can finally get some answers." Haku said noncommittally.

"What do we do now?" Miku asked excitedly.

"Well once it boots up all the way we'll see if it needs a password. Then we'll crack it and see if we can run a diagnostic cycle." She told her girlfriend, and the pretty light blue haired girl made a face.

"Just a diagnostic cycle? What will that do?"

"It will help us to compare our current status to our previous baselines to look for any discrepancies." Haku said distractedly as the terminal's password screen came up. It seemed to be linked to the massive SUV's computer but still had it's own processor. At least she could sense it on the network connected to it herself as she was.

"Plain words please, Haku-chin!" Miku said.

Haku let out a sigh. "I have the data from the last time we were in your parent's lab stored in my memory. If I scan us now I can compare the information to see if there's anything wrong."

"What could be wrong?" Miku asked curiously as she watched Haku work on the terminal. "We've been working just fine haven't we?"

"Just a way to look in to things." Haku muttered evasively and she ran her code breaking program, the little mosaic block of data rotating in her 3D vision. She caught Miku narrowing her eyes at her out of the corner of her eye and added. "Like maybe finding out why Meiko's darts worked on me but not you or Luka-chin."

"Oh." Miku said as the terminal logged in and the desktop came up. "Why isn't this diagnostic screen fading in and out like the rest of the lights in this great behemoth?" She asked slapping a hand against her floor.

"Probably a power buffer." Haku replied as she found the diagnostic software shortcut and opened it up. The widow looked exactly like it had in her parent's abandoned lab. "Computer power supplies distribute power to a computer's components, not the source of the power."

Miku got up and shifted around beside the chair by the diagnostic terminal. "Should I just sit here for you then?" She asked curiously.

Haku glanced at the time reflexively then felt annoyed with herself. She didn't need to look at external time pieces anymore, but she still found herself doing such things by rote from time to time. "Not yet, I think it's about time we go pick up Luka-chin from work. Then I can run diagnostics on all of us later."

The petite girl nodded then started to move up to the front. "Okay, I'm ready." She started shifting into the front passenger side since she'd driven that morning but Haku reached out to touch her leg and Miku looked back questioningly.

"Will you drive? I want to see what all this computer has on it. And perhaps this laptop too." Haku leaned over to where the dead laptop was and connected it to the terminal dock then lifted its screen up and pressed the power button. She was greeted by the sight of it lighting up as the terminal had a moment before and she felt immensely pleased with herself.

"Sure." Miku agreed, and before she could move away Haku snagged her again and pull her back to her. She let out a squealing giggle as she tilted backwards and Haku pressed a kiss to her lips. Miku responded by wrapping her arms around Haku's shoulders much as she herself did with Luka, and she let her love and warmth flow to the other girl. They weren't connected right that moment but she was sure Miku felt it and and after long moments she let the kiss break and they panted lightly at each other. "What was that for?"

"For celebration." Haku told her. "I promised you a genius, remember?" Miku giggled at her then leaned back up once more to climb into the front seat. Haku felt her girlfriend's presence come onto the vehicle's network so she could start the car, and a moment later they were pulling away down the road. Haku shifted around so she could close the access hatch in the floor, cutting the damaged pulsing V-Core off from sight, then set about hacking the laptop the same way she had the terminal. Once that was done she let out an annoyed sigh as the login competed and she saw the password for the laptop and terminal were both the same. She hadn't even thought to try it, had just immediately gone to crack it. With the laptop logged on and connected to the network in the SUV she let the screen go into idle mode so the V-Core could charge it and began to bring up the files from both computers in her 3D overlay. Folders and documents sailed passed her vision as she sorted through therm, and with no real need to be physically in the back anymore she climbed up into the front with her girlfriend, slipping into the passenger seat and clicking her seatbelt on.

"Find anything?" Miku asked curiously as she drove them toward the edge of the city.

"Still looking." Haku replied as as she continued sifting through files. "The diagnostic terminal seems to be just that, there's not a lot of real data in it, just programs and drivers. The laptop though has a large hard drive. So far it seems to be a lot of notes and backup files my parents kept, a lot of it copies of what I found in the lab I was keld in, but not all of it."

"Well let's hope there's something in there we can use." Miku replied. She felt the other girl shift her wireless connection toward her rather than the vehicle and Haku reached out with her cybermind to accept. Miku's essence seemed to bloom into being in the back of her head and with it came that golden glow that she'd come to know as her love for her, and Haku hoped that her girlfriend could feel it from her too. Miku just flashed a small smile at her before shifting her gaze back to the road.

There were a lot of files to go through and Haku spent the entirety of the drive sorting through them, knowing it would take more than the brief car trip to get through them all. She felt Miku's attention on them too, knowing the other girl could see what she was seeing through their direct connection, but she didn't say anything as she 'watched' Haku sift through them. A week ago this would have seemed strange, having someone else present in the back of her mind able to see what she was doing in her own head, but now it came as naturally as breathing. Being connected to either of her girlfriends was intimacy beyond words and she treasured every moment. That aside, if it weren't for their cybernetically enhanced minds this sort of file structure would have taken hours to go through with a traditional mouse and keyboard. However Haku could simply pull them up with a thought, visual 3D representations of the laptop in the corner of her vision hovering in place while she willed files from it, each seeming to float up to her so she could see what was in them before they dissipated while another one took it's place. Most of it really was just copies of the files she already had in her head as she'd told Miku and she had to really focus to keep from cycling passed them too fast incase she missed something. As they hit the edge of city limits they both took a brief moment to concentrate on their hair and eyes. Haku stained her snowy locks a charcoal black and her red eyes clouded over into a dark hazel, and Miku's light blue spread into a brownish auburn and her green eyes shifted to an average dark color.

Haku was still sorting through things when they finally pulled up in the street outside of the mechanic shop Luka was working at, and as they did they could both feel their girlfriend's presence inside. They each reached out to her from where they were with their cyberminds, seeking that intimately comforting connection, and when the third leg of their little tripod accepted they both felt her blossom into the backs of their minds as they had with each other not long before, that golden glow amplifying with the addition. Miku let the engine throttle off then reached up and tugged her twintails out and pulled her hair into one long ponytail that she tied at the base of her neck similar to Haku's own but without a bow, then they got out of the gargantuan vehicle. They shut their doors but before they could head inside movement off toward the corner of the building drew their gaze. Alarm rang in their heads from Luka seeing through their eyes as they saw Ia standing there wearing white and grey clothes with big dark sunglasses, but she was motioning toward them, her face anxious rather than threatening. They traded looks and could feel Luka hurrying to get outside, could see her washing grease off her hands in a sink through her eyes in the backs of their heads. They stepped over to the alley and joined Ia a few paces down it before the pale haired girl turned around to them.

"Can I just… can I just ask one thing before… before you say anything?" She asked nervously. They nodded and she swallowed hard and they could see a tear leak down out from under the bottom edge of her oversized sunglasses. "If you could… if you could free me… right this instant…" Another tear from the other eye ran down her cheek. "If I said that I couldn't help you one tiny bit, that I had absolutely nothing to offer you… but I asked you to free me, and it was within your power to do so… would you?"

Miku turned her gaze to look up at Haku and she could feel the concern from her girlfriend, but Haku tilted her head slightly. She took a small step forward and slowly reached up for Ia's glasses. Ia flinched away but didn't step back, and Haku paused for a moment to let her take a second to collect herself, but she didn't lower her hands. She could feel Luka come rushing out of the building behind her but she didn't turn around, eyes fixed on Ia's face. After a tense moment Ia held her head up straight once more, and Haku gently took hold of the rims and slide them carefully off her face. She had a feeling what she would find, but the sickly yellow and purple bruise spread over Ia's eye and side of her head with spots of blood dotting it was still a disturbing sight. It looked like it was a couple of days old but that was probably the work of the nanites. She heard Miku gasp and Luka hiss behind her, felt fury at whoever had done this to her coming from both of them in the back of her mind. Tears still leaked down Ia's cheeks but she kept her quivering lip stiff to keep from crying. Haku traced a tear tenderly with one finger tip, and she couldn't keep the cold winter's storm of anger out of her silvery voice, just hoped they knew it wasn't at them. "Yes." She answered the question. "Absolutely I would. I can this very minute, if you want."

Ia threw her arms around Haku and gasped a sob, and Haku just hugged her back. "I can't, not now. Meiko-tan is still in there and I… I can't go without her." She swallowed and leaned back. "I just… I had to… I mean…" she sighed and leaned over beside her where she'd apparently set a case behind a trash can. "You're a wonderful person, Yowane-san. I can't go against my programming, not yet, and I won't leave Meiko-tan. But…" she bit her lip a moment then held the case out. "I hope this helps you help us."

Haku took the case slowly, then held Ia's glasses up for her, which the pale haired girl took and put back on. Luka spoke up behind her. "Who did this to you? And where's Sakine-san?"

Ia tilted her head slightly. "You know the answer to both of those questions." For a moment it didn't seem like she would say more but then she added, "Meiko-tan is enduring… tests… so that I can be here now." The sadness in her voice was heart wrenching, and she turned to go.

"Aria-san." Haku called softly, the softness of a blizzard threatening overheard before actually blowing in. Ia paused and turned just her head, looking back over her shoulder. "Two days." Was all she said. Ia nodded, and with her sunglasses on it was impossible to tell if she was hopeful or dubious. Perhaps a mix of both… the pale haired girl turned and exited the alley on the other side, walking out of sight.

"What's going to happen in two days?" Luka asked.

"I don't know, but I'm tired of hiding, tired of running. Living like we are now isn't all bad, but it's not _our_ life." Haku said, turning around to her girlfriends. "We can't stay where we are forever, and I want to take our lives back. I will keep my word to them. I will help them." She didn't have time to worry about that right this minute though. She wanted very much to help Ia and Meiko, but one step at a time, so she put that problem out of her mind for the moment. "We have good news, I-" She started to tell Luka, then stumbled and flung an arm out toward the wall. Pain shot through her head worse than ever before and the red warning letters in her vision nearly filled her entire sight. ' _Warning: Programming conflict, driver error, critical system incompatibility._ ' Someone was whimpering and calling her name. No, it was her whimpering, and she'd missed the wall. She didn't know how long she was writhing in agony but when the pain finally subsided and her muscles relaxed she looked up as the letters faded from her vision. Miku had hold of one of her shoulders and Luka the other and both were looking down at her with faces flooded with worry and fear.

"Haku-chin! Are you okay?" Miku winced down at her. "I could feel how badly you were hurting in my head! I could even see that warning in your vision!"

"I'm… I'm okay now…" She tried to sit up but they held onto her firmly.

"How long has this been going on, Haku-chin?" Luka asked. Her tone wasn't _exactly_ accusatory, but it was definitely stern and Haku wilted under that gaze.

"For… for a couple of weeks…" She admitted quietly. "Since the first night after I was fully recovered from the subway..."

"That long?!" Miku squeaked.

"You told us you were just having headaches…" Luka looked crestfallen as she realized Haku had been lying.

"I… I didn't want to worry you both…" Haku said quietly. Still connected as they were she knew they could feel her sincerity, and her regret as well. "I'm so sorry… I just… there was nothing we could do about it at the time and… we had more important things to worry about…"

Miku reached out and grabbed Haku's face with her hands and lifted her head up so they could stare into each other's eyes, dark meeting hazel. "NOTHING is more important than you! Than us I mean! Than this! Than what we have together!" She almost shouted in her face. " _Nothing_!"

Luka leaned in to squeeze Haku around the shoulders. "You said to always talk to each other right? Always! I understand how you felt about it, but please, you have to understand how we feel too! You have to tell us these things!"

"What could you have done if you'd known?" Haku asked quietly.

"Nothing!" Miku said vehemently. "But that's not the point! We could have been there for you! Comforted you!"

"Promise us, Haku-chin. From now on, you have to tell us things like this."

Haku slowly nodded. "I will. I'm sorry." They both leaned in and hugged her hard, and she let out her breath in a rush as they compressed her chest with theirs. "Luka-chin… Miku-chin… I can't breathe…" She croaked, and they let her go a bit and looked at her.

"So what are we going to do about this error?" Luka asked earnestly.

"That's what I was going to tell you. I finally managed to fix the terminal in the SUV. We can now run diagnostics and do maintenance." She told her, and the other girl smiled brightly.

"That's fantastic! You're really amazing Haku-chin! Truly!"

"That's what I told her!" Miku agreed. "You'd think she'd listen to us by now!"

Haku leaned over to the case she'd dropped when she'd fallen and shifted it around in front of them then lifted the latches to peer inside at what Ia had brought them and all three of their eyes bulged at the huge stacks of cash inside with a tablet sitting on top. She closed it again just as quickly and glanced around to make sure the alleyway was still empty, then they rushed to the car. She pulled the side door open to get in and the other two got in right behind her and shut the door. Taking the tablet out she woke the screen up getting ready to connect to it and hack it, but there was no need. If there had been any security on it before then Ia must have turned it off because the home screen came right up. The entire home page was blank and devoid of anything at all save for one single folder. Haku set the tablet down on the floor of the SUV then shifted her cyber connection to link them all to the tablet. She created a virtual workspace in her mind much as she'd done when she'd first shown the other two girls what this was like for her, and to all of their eyes the tablet seemed to become highlighted, as though it had been selected like a computer icon. She reached her hand out to flick a wrist in a gesture and a 3D visual representation of the folder on the front screen seemed to pop up out of the tablet to hover in the air before them. They all watched as she flicked it 'open' and files began to come out and hover around them. There were perhaps two or three dozen documents inside and she began taping and glancing through them. It had been a day of file sorting it seemed, and far faster than human thoughts could have done it they began to sort through the documents to see what was in them, 3D pages flying through the air as they were opened, glanced through, then put away. Haku let herself download them all even as they looked through them.

" _These all seem to be files from Aria-san's commanding officer_." Haku let her thoughts carry through the link to them because it was faster than talking, faster than any sort of human communication. " _It looks like this man has put together a cybernetics team to work on developing their own version of cyborgs using the V-Chip design_."

" _Where could they have gotten it?_ " Miku thought back as she scanned down a page, but the response came immediately. " _Your parents, Haku-chin? The witch said they'd sold the government some tech._ " Haku let a feeling of wordless agreement drift out to the other girl as she continued sorting through files.

" _This team is full of… interesting people._ " Came Luka's thoughts. " _Here's a personnel listing and every last name on here had their government commissions reinstated by this guy. They were all dismissed from prior postings for various unacceptable behaviors, such as excessive risk taking in scientific testing procedures, improper following of security procedures, undocumented medical experimentation… the list goes on._ "

"Ahhh!" Haku exclaimed aloud then brought a file around to show her girlfriends. " _This officer classified the whole project! No one outside of their division knows anything about the Vocaloids!_ " She thought excitedly.

" _That…! That means…!_ " Miku thought just as excitedly, bouncing a little in place while making a cute 'haaaaaa!' noise in her throat as she did.

" _That means we don't have the entire government to deal with._ " Luka said smiling widely, her face radiant. " _Just this one man and his team_."

They looked at each other and for the first time in weeks Haku let a genuine smile of happiness spread across her lips. "I know what we're going to do." She told them aloud, sudden inspiration striking her and making her giddy. Her smile and inner tingles reached them through the connection and made them smile back at her. "I know how we're going to put an end to this and get our lives back."

"How?!" Miku didn't quite shout.

"I need to work on some details, and I need to run some scans on us now that I can." Haku patted the terminal. "Let's get back and start in."

"No! I don't think so!" Miku replied, and when all eyes were on her the petite girl giggled. "First we get ice cream!" She gestured at the box filled with cash. "I think we deserve to celebrate! Things have been so bad for so long I think we should take a little time to relax! I want a giant burger for dinner and a delicious hot fudge sunday!"

Luka let out a huge sigh and shook her head. "Why always with the burger, Miku-chin?" She sounded stem but she had that small private smile on her face.

"Pleeeeeeeeeeeeease?!" Miku batted her eyes prettily and Luka sighed and relented.

"Alright, but we'll have to make it fast food so we can use a drive thru to minimize exposure and get back to the hot spring quicker."

Miku cheered and dove over the divider into the front seat and cast a brief thought to start the engine, and a moment later they were pulling onto the main streets. She seemed to know where she was going and as they drove along Haku finished downloading the files on the tablet then deleted the folder on the front screen, wiping the device of anything important and letting their virtual workspace fade away. Once they'd reached the drive thru Miku ordered her giant burger and hot fudge. " _I want a plain chicken sandwich and a strawberry milkshake._ " Luka thought at the girl in the front while she was ordering, and Haku sent a wordless agreement along, liking how that sounded. They pulled through, paid, got their food, and minutes later were headed back to the resort.

Back at the closed down hot spring they let their hair and eyes revert to normal, then ate and had a nice bath together before retiring to the room they were using with a few sodas they had left. It turned out to be an extremely pleasant evening, and despite the seriousness of their situation Haku felt light hearted for the first time in weeks. Part of her attention was on the ideas she was rolling around in the back of her mind as they ate and talked and laughed together, but for the most part she was just enjoying being with the two women she loved so much. Miku was right, they really hadn't had the time or luxury to just be together in a long time. She felt so comfortable she let her outer mask of calm slip and just tried to relax. The other two sensed her mood shift in their minds and glanced her way as they sat on the futon, and though she could tell from her feeling of their feelings along their connection they asked away.

"Are you okay Haku-chin? You seem a little off." Luka said.

"You seemed so confident earlier." Miku added.

"I'm still sure I know what to do, I'm just still trying to figure out how." She told them, a slight note of nervousness in her silvery tone.

"Is that what you're rolling around in your head without letting us see?" Luka asked curiously.

"Ha?" Haku blinked. "I mean, I'm not exactly hiding it."

"Yes you are, it's a big black spot on the ball of sensations in my head that is my Haku-chin." Miku said, tapping her temple with a finger tip.

"Huh… it's not on purpose. I just haven't figured it out yet." Haku thought that was interesting, that they couldn't see it. Or had she really been hiding it in a subconscious manner?

"Jeez!" Miku let her hands plop into her lap in an exasperated gesture. "Is science and stressful stuff all you ever think about?!"

"Not all…" Haku muttered.

"We're celebrating, Haku-chin! Be in the moment with us!" The pretty light blue haired girl said.

"My brain just never stops, Miku-chin." She replied. "Even when I'm resting it just doesn't stop."

Miku rolled her eyes. "I've noticed. It's like a storm in your head, now that I can see inside it."

"I've heard of that." Luka said thoughtfully. "Where some people's brains just simply never turn off." She offered a playful smirk to Haku. "I've heard it's most common in geniuses."

Haku blushed at the sideways compliment and Luka giggled, but Miku scowled and shuffled forward on her hands and knees to put her face bare centimetres from Haku's. "I want your brain all to ourselves tonight. How can I do that?"

"It already is…?" Haku blinked at the petite girl in confusion.

"No, Haku-chin. _All_ to ourselves." Miku wormed her way into her lap and wrapped her arms up around Haku's shoulders and neck. "No science, no theory, no stress, no outside world." She tilted her face up to stare at her and Haku thought she could have drowned in those big beautiful green eyes. "Just. The. Three. Of. Us. You. Me. Luka-chin. How do I make that happen?"

"Uhm…?" Haku swallowed hard and flushed, and the glowing golden glow in the ball of sensations in her mind that was Miku tinted a reddish gold as the shorter girl blushed slightly too.

"Maybe she needs to be… distracted… from everything else, Miku-chin." Luka breathed, her ball of sensations in Haku's head tinging to a red gold glow too.

Without hesitation Miku leaned up to gently press their lips together, and Haku could feel Miku feeling the soft kiss along the connection as well as she could herself. For that matter she could feel Luka feeling the kiss from both of their sides of it. Her mind seemed to explode in fireworks as their lips played together and she squeezed Miku around the waist, pulling them more tightly together. Even though the petite girl was the shorter of them Miku was definitely the initiator and Haku held on until the other girl finally pulled back. "Well?" Miku asked breathily. "Still thinking about science?"

"What's science?" Haku asked just as out of breath.

"It's a fib Miku-chin, I could see her thinking about our mental connection during it." Luka said.

Miku sighed and shook her head and Haku wined, "Only because the golden glow was so pretty!"

"Maybe you'd better try." Miku said over her shoulder and shifted off of Haku's lap so Luka could move forward on the futon. She leaned up on her knees so she was above her snowy haired beauty and bent at the waist to put her arms around Haku's head, tilted her face up, then brought her lips down. Feeling this kiss in triplicate as she had the one with Miku was just as intense but still managed to feel a little different, and her mind seemed to flood with the the pink haired idol. She lost herself in the kiss this time, her arms coming up to circle Luka's waist, her head swimming from all the sensations, the red gold glow bright and shining with the love and passion from the two women who meant more than the world to her. When the taller girl leaned back finally they were both panting hard from what felt like, to some degree at least, having each gotten six passionate kisses in the space of two.

"What…" Luka gasped and put a hand to her chest as she knelt over Haku. "What are you… thinking now, Haku-chin?"

Haku swallowed hard and squirmed where she was sitting. She could feel the red hot passion from both of her girlfriends as well as her own, and it was like being turned on three fold. No, that wasn't quite right. It was more like being aroused at three times the intensity level. "I think…" she replied slowly, breathlessly, "That I made a… a promise this morning…" The heat surged through their link, emotions so overwhelmingly passionate from both of them that Haku, being such an emotionally driven person, almost thought that alone might have been enough for her if she'd been ready for it. They felt her reaction to it too of course, and they blinked at her.

"Should we… maybe…?" Miku asked tentatively and reached a hand up to the air to mime snapping a string or something, and Haku shook her head emphatically.

"Oh no. No no no. The connection stays on." She said intently. "I want to feel what it's like for you both too."

"That seems almost too lewd… but we are a couple after all." Luka said, and nodded. "Was this your surprise twist? Okay Haku-chin."

Haku lay back on the futon and both the other two slid up beside her. They weren't in any hurry, this was a new thing to explore, and they wanted to stretch it out and make it last. Luka leaned in run her tongue gently along Haku's ear while Miku leaned in to trail wet little kisses up her neck. She shivered and moaned feeling electrified by their touch, and they shivered too feeling not only what it felt like to her but also feeling each other feeling it. They traded off now and then, Miku talking her opposite ear and Luka licking at the other side of her neck, drawing the experience out over a deliciously agonizing long period of time. Haku squirmed and moaned and felt that red gold glow, as warm and loving and radiant as a sunset from them. They loved her, they really and truly loved her with every fiber of their beings, and she loved them too, knew they could feel that from her as much as they could feel the rest. That was as much of a turn on for her as any of the rest, more than the rest. She liked hearing it though, liked it being said, and they picked up on that too.

"I love you, Haku-chin." Luka breathed against her neck.

"Love you so much." Miku whispered in her ear.

"Luka-chin… Miku-chin… I love you…"

Haku felt a hand sliding down her tummy and for a moment she had to actually concentrate to tell whose it was. Luka pressed down gently against Haku's belly to get the tips of her fingers under her shirt then slid then them up to stroke and caress around her navel. After a moment Miku's hand joined in but went for her sides and hips, petting and gently squeezing. The heat inside her began to feel like it was coming to a peak, one she normally associated with being so close she could have tipped over the edge. This time however she went right passed that peak and kept climbing, apparently becoming lost in who was feeling how much of what. It occurred to her that she didn't know how long she'd been laying there in between her two lovers but abruptly she felt a need to move so she wasn't solely receiving without giving. She sat up and they leaned back for her as she moved down the futon and flipped around to pat the spot she'd just vacated. Luka and Miku looked at her, then looked at each other, trying to decide who should go. Finally Miku rotated around and lay down, then clenched her legs together feeling a little embarrassed. Haku was confused why at first then realized that the petite girl was trying to keep her scent from wafting up. Haku was as aroused from the feelings she was experiencing from the other two as she was feeling on her own, and of course they were having the same thing happening.

They were all ready to pop and Haku suddenly felt extremely mischievous, reaching up a hand to gently but insistently slide Miku's knees open. Miku blushed and they could all feel her embarrassment as her legs spread open and her scent drifted up. Haku got a noseful as she leaned in to gently lick and stroke at Miku's inner thighs. She remembered Miku saying that was her weak spot and she was rewarded with confirmation via the petite girl's sudden moans and squirming. " _Is that… really what I smell like to you, Haku-chin?"_ Came Miku's thoughts in her mind as her panting and moaning made speech difficult. " _So… sweet_?" Her own scent had always made her self conscious and from what was coming down the link it was the same for the others, but Miku seemed honestly surprised at the sensory input Haku's nose was passing along about her smell.

" _I love your scent, Miku-chin. And I love Luka-chin's smell as well. It's… one of my guilty secrets. Your scents are nearly aphrodisiacs to me_." She thought back, and both blushes and heat stoked higher in all three of them, which of course they all felt from each other along with everything else. This whole thing was building on itself, growing higher, becoming more intense than anything any of them had ever felt before or even imagined possible. Miku was moaning and writhing non stop as Haku made her way up and down and along her inner thighs as Luka leaned down and began to work at her collar bone. The shirt became a problem and the pink haired beauty leaned down to clasp the hem and tug it upward, and Miku wiggled out of it eagerly enough. They worked on the petite girl for a time and it seemed like clothes were getting ever more in the way. Haku squirmed out of her pants and Luka pulled her own shirt off, then her skirt followed. Miku leaned down slightly to push her own skirt down but with another person in the way between her legs Haku had to take out from her, sliding them up and off as Miku lifted her legs. Then she leaned down to hook the hem of the petite girl's panties and Miku squeaked as Haku took them too.

That was all the warning she gave them before she practicality dove face first into Miku's pretty slit tongue first, but she herself wasn't any more ready for the result than the other two were. All three froze were they eye and tensed all over as they all felt like they were being licked at the same time. Miku moaned loudly, Luka gasped, and Haku had to clamp her legs together. After a moment they all loosened up and she resumed her licking, but it was worst for Miku as she could feel them feeling her being licked. All three were becoming overwhelmed by the passion and Luka practically yanked Miku's bra up to get at her breasts. The sound of fabric ripping filled the air but none of them noticed as they played her like an instrument. The lines between who was doing what were beginning to blur in their minds; Haku kept having moments where she really wasn't sure if she had a clit between her lips or a nipple in her mouth, but she knew she wanted more either way, needed more. The glow of crimson stained gold was so bright in her mind she wondered that she wasn't burning alive from the love and passion.

" _I'm… I'm gonna… I'm getting close…_!" Came a frantic thought, and they all paused for a second. Miku looked just as confused as the rest of them, but when they realized it had been her thought Haku leaned up, yanked her shirt and underwear off, and slid herself up Miku's body. Luka followed suit with her own bra and panties, and shortly there after Haku was sliding her clit down against Miku's even as Luka straddled over the green eyed girl's face. Luka leaned in to embrace Haku and their lips met, their nipples rubbed together, and their passions seemed to erupt. As soon as they were all locked together the last faint vestiges of lines between their minds dividing who was who seemed to melt away. They were all completely lost in the other two, not fully feeling as one because they were still three distinct minds in operation, but with all of them now feeling everything in triplicate no-one could tell which mind was working which body parts. The glow of passion and love between the three was so intense and the boundaries between individual selves so obscured all they could do was make sure to not stop whatever was being done right then.

Louder and louder moaning filled the room from three muffled mouths, intense burning hot lust blazed amongst them from three clits that each could be felt threefold, three bodies rocked and tingled together that were each on fire three times. The first scream of ecstasy rippled across six eardrums three times all at once, and a moment later there were two more screams. Three peaks were hit all at the same time, nine times tipped over the edge, the equivalent climax of nine explosive orgasms among three vaginas, and there was no way of telling how long the screaming went on for. Everything else ceased to be, there was only the release nine times more powerful than any expectation and the love nine times as hot and radiant. It was a moment unlike any other and it seemed to stretch for an eternity. Love and passion were all.

Consciousness seemed to slowly rebuild itself. There had been no loss of it, just a shifting in perceptions, and it was a long time in changing back. A name floated out of the haze to her. Haku. That's right, she was Haku. And she had her own head and limbs and body. She shifted her gaze around to find herself laying sprawled in a tangle with the other two. Oh yeah, they were separate beings. They'd collapsed atop each other in the moment of release and it was actually extremely uncomfortable. Awareness bloomed in her mind, a small annoyance at first, but growing more insistent by the second. She couldn't breathe, and there was an elbow digging into her side and a knee jammed into her hip and… no. It was Miku having a hard time breathing, and her elbow in Luka's side, and Luka's knee… it was an effort to tell them apart, but it was becoming easier with each passing moment as their minds reasserted themselves. Slowly she shifted her weight off of poor squashed Miku and pulled Luka over with her, but the taller girl was already moving on her own. Miku gasped as air flooded her lungs and she rolled on to her side as the other two hit the futon. They squirmed around weakly until they were cuddled together with Luka in the middle, and for awhile all they could do was lay there gasping and panting while their minds finished sorting out the tangle they'd made of them.

"That. Was. Insane." Miku said, of course the first one to find her voice. "I've never felt anything like that before. So intense."

Luka shifted her head to look at Haku. "The love and emotions really do have more effect on you than the physical."

"Is that so weird?" Haku asked quietly.

"No, not at all." Luka replied gently stroking her snowy hair. "The feelings are as important to me too, but I couldn't ever imagine one being more or less so than the other before. But feeling it from your point of view… it was a wonderful gift."

"I think it's because you grew up all alone Haku-chin." Miku said and smiled over top of Luka's breasts at her. "You never had anyone before and you need that. It's understandable."

"You did take a long time to accept that we thought you were beautiful." Luka agreed.

"You say that like I've come to accept it." Haku murmured burying herself in that heavenly spot against Luka's breast she'd found before. "I still struggle with that."

"Well… you are and we love you." Luka told her.

Haku took a deep breath, feeling that from them, feeling the genuine truth of it along their link. "I know." They smiled at her.

Surprisingly little time had gone by, less than they'd expected really, and far less than they usually spent making love, but with the connection amplifying everything it had taken them like a flash fire and burned hot and intense and then had blown out. They each felt like they'd had nine orgasms at once and their bodies were certainly spent. It had been brief but intensely fulfilling. They held each other lovingly and cuddled there until they fell asleep.


	32. Vocaloid Academy Chapter 32

"This guy is totally nutsoid!" Miku's chime like voice was scandalized as it reached Haku's ears from the driver seat of the massive Karlmann King. She had one leg propped over the steering wheel and the other foot up on the center shifting column as she lounged in the seat that looked far too large for her petite frame. Her hair was a lighter brown today, her eyes a hazel color she seemed to prefer when in disguise, her hair unbound and free flowing held back only by a golden hairband Luka had let her use. She held the tablet propped on her tummy and was flicking at it idly incase any passerby outside happened to glance in the window and see her there, but in reality she was looking through the documents they'd gotten off of it after Ia had dropped them the case of cash with it in it. Haku had all the files from it on her internal storage and the other two could freely access them through their direct connection when they were linked, as she was with Miku now. "His military record is like ninety miles long with all kinds of combat experience, over three hundred confirmed kills, master of four forms of martial arts, extensive weapon expertise, the works. He was discharged from the military a few years ago due to being crippled in some battle but was later reinstated by some big shot general guy who owed him some sort of favor."

"Was he dishonorably discharged or just because of the injury?" Luka asked, not having the information in front of her because she wasn't connected to them right that moment. She was stretched out on the back seat beside the diagnostic terminal with a cord running from it to the back of her neck. Haku had her hooked up and was running an analysis on her, and they thought it best not to have her linked to the others while being scanned incase their connection interfered with the process.

"It doesn't say anything about dishonors, but he was apparently ruthless in a fight." Miku replied, flicking a ball up toward the mass of other balls coming down the screen. "Overly brutal, unnecessarily aggressive, never backed down… this guy sounds like evil Rambo."

"Are you… playing Bubble?" Luka asked, twisting her head to peer over her sandy blond hair. Haku didn't like the blond look on her idol but hadn't said anything aloud about it that morning when they'd packed up and left the closed down hot springs they'd taken shelter in these past nearly two weeks. They'd been linked that morning though and the taller girl had felt her dislike of course, but it had only made her smile playfully.

"I'm trying to look like a bored teenager." Miku stuck her tongue out around her seat edge. "So yes I am." She sighed and waved the tablet briefly to gesture out the window at the public park they were stopped beside at the people walking by. "I bet none of them can get perfect scores every time. Honestly in some ways having a cybernetically enhanced brain takes all the fun out of things! I can totally see every possible move that can happen before the game even processes the last one I made…" she stuck her lower lip out but Miku even looked cute when pouting.

"I think I've figured this out." Haku announced, and both of her girlfriends sat up to try to see the terminal screen. She scrolled through Luka's code, in read only mode because she didn't have the other girl in a diagnostic cycle, and pointed at a few lines. "Your nanites are virtually identical to mine." She said, tabbing to a different screen that had some of her own code she'd saved from a scan she'd done on herself earlier. "At least as far as construction goes. They're built the same way and capable of performing the same tasks. The difference is that they're configured in a slightly different way than mine because I have different cybernetic hardware." She tabbed again to a file of her father's notes she'd taken from the lab she's destroyed. "At their most basic concept the nanites are just drones carrying out programmed tasks, but they still have to adapt and change to suit their host's biological and technological specifications. Since my construction was different than both of yours, my nanites have adapted differently."

"And that's why that serum Sakine-san shot us with on the subway worked on you but not us?' Luka asked curiously as she peered at the screen. The other two girls had made good on their promises to her and had begun letting her teach them how to code, and they were both taking to it with surprising aptitude, but they were still a long way off from being expert enough to quickly scan through lines or the like. They could debug well enough if they sat down and took the time to but they had to triple and quadruple check every character and command and even with a cybernetically enhanced brain chip that processed information hundreds of times faster than a biological human brain that still took time.

Haku nodded, "That's right. Somehow the government knew enough about my construction to make a serum that would temporarily disable me which they wanted to use to capture me, but they didn't realize you were different so it wasn't made to work on you."

"But couldn't they just change it later to work on us?" Miku sounded worried but Haku shook her head.

"Not unless they gain more knowledge on your construction. I think because of what Juon-san said about my parents having had dealings with the government means they had enough info on me, but yours haven't so you should both be safe for now." She told them.

"What about your error?" Luka asked, her crystal voice thick with concern.

Haku sighed deeply, not wanting to answer that question, but… she'd promised. "From what I can tell from my scan, it's my… energy draining abilities causing... problems."

Luka narrowed her blue eyes. "What kind of… problems?"

""I'm not turning into a souldrinker of that's what you're asking." Haku replied dryly then winced at her own tone. Her girlfriend reached a hand out to lay gently on her arm and Haku squeezed it with her other hand. "I'm sorry, it's just unnerving still, to know I'm some kind of hybrid…"

"You're not a souldrinker Haku-chin, you're a Vocaloid." Miku said firmly.

"I know, but… but I am what I am, and that includes souldrinker abilities." She scrolled down her dad's notes to a section about her construction. "My father talks about it here, theories about a Vocaloid capable of siphoning electrical current from any source, biological or technological, and redirecting the charge when drained. It was a weaponization idea he'd hoped to present to the government to sell them."

"What went wrong?" Luka asked curiously. "To many souldrinkers around?"

"No, the souldrinkers didn't start showing up until later." She replied.

"Then that means… you weren't based on the souldrinkers." Miku said, realization dawning on her. "They were based… on you?"

"It doesn't say in these notes, but it seems that way." She told them carefully. "I'm not sure what the difference between them and me is exactly, but…"

"The difference is that they're mindless feeding machines and your not." Luka said sternly.

Haku squeezed her hand again, "I know that much, but…" she braced herself to tell them the rest, taking a deep breath. "The Vocaloid Chip wasn't originally designed for use with the hardware that a souldrinker's energy siphoning uses. The firmware conflicts, the hardware is incompatible."

They stared at her for a long moment, looks on their faces like they were being told a loved one had a terminal illness. Which… they were, in a way. "What… what does that mean, exactly?" Miku asked in a quivering voice.

"It's why I've started throwing errors." Haku told them, swallowing at a lump in her throat that didn't want to go away. "It's why my abilities sometimes seem erratic. My hardware is conflicting."

"What… what will happen if it keeps on like this?" Luka asked quietly.

Haku felt a tear slide down her cheek. She didn't want to tell them, didn't want them to hurt over this… but she'd promised… "The headaches will get worse and worse… the error will happen more and more often… until total system failure…"

"No!" Miku sobbed and climbed over the center shifting column into the back area with them. "No! How do we fix it?! How do we fix you?!"

"I don't know…" Haku gestured at the screen. "I'm just telling you what I've found so far."

Miku slammed her fists on the floor of the huge SUV. "This isn't fair! Why is it always you?! You don't deserve this!"

"Because my parents… did what they did… I was an experiment, a hybrid…" Haku trailed off, her heart breaking to see the hurt she was causing therm.

"How long do you have?" Luka asked, her crystalline voice still low.

Haku shrugged uncomfortably. It was so surreal talking about her death like this, like a machine just shutting down. "There's no way to be sure. Sometimes the pain isn't that bad, the error not huge, but then sometimes it's like it was in the alleyway last time…" They winced recalling that incident. "They've been getting worse each time on average overall though."

"Best guess?" Luka pressed.

"Please don't… ask that…" Haku whispered, trying to deter her lovers, but they stared at her intently.

"Haku-chin, please."

Haku swallowed and looked away, her chest feeling like it was going to burst from sorrow. "... A couple of weeks at most. Maybe four, a month and a half if I'm really lucky, but it could be a lot less too, a week maybe."

"We have to get you to my parents!" Miku said emphatically. "They can fix you! Now that we can access your command interface, they could fix you!"

"If we do that we bring the government down on their heads, down on the other Vocaloids." Haku reminded her. "We can't do that."

"But if we don't you'll die!" Miku cried, reaching out to clutch at Haku's arm. "You can't die! You can't!"

"If we bring the government down on the Compound, then there will be no one to fight the souldrinkers." Haku whispered. "All they have right now is Gumi, Teto, and Gackpo. If my death keeps them alive and able up continue the fight against my parents-"

"How can you be so calm about this?!" Luka demanded, her tone sounding harsh as a mask to keep tears in check Haku was sure. "How can you sit there and talk about dying so casually?!"

"She's not calm." Miku wiped at tears streaming down her pretty face, but her voice didn't waver. "She's like a tornado inside right now."

The petite girl was right, it was an effort for Haku to cling to her outer mask of calm serenity. "There are no words adequate to explain how much it breaks my heart to hurt you both like this." She told them quietly.

Luka reached behind her head and pulled the jack out of the back of her neck, replacing it with her epidermal plug, then reached out with her cybermind for connection. Haku accepted without hesitation, watched as she linked with Miku as well, and Luka's eyes widened as tears sprang to her eyes too. "You're not… you're not concerned with yourself at all. You're entire worry is for the hurt Miku-chin and I are having because of it, and for the Vocaloids as a whole if the Government finds them."

Haku reached out an arm to either of her girlfriends and pulled them to her, squeezing them hard against her in an embrace full of the love she felt for them. "I've told you both before that I love you each more than life itself. If my death protects you, I offer it willingly. The last thing I want is to hurt either of you, but if it saves you… if it saves the Vocaloids…"

They clung to each other for long minutes, silent tears of disbelief and despair streaming down their faces, then abruptly Miku pulled back. She put her hands to Haku's shoulders and looked her square in the eye. "Haku-chin, it's not over yet." She said intently.

"What's not?"

"Uh, duh! You're not dead yet!" Miku replied emphatically. "As long as you're alive, there's a chance right?!"

"What chance? It's a hardware problem." Haku told her.

"Miku-chin is right." Luka added her own stubborn streak in support. "There's still a chance to find a way out of this."

"How?" Haku asked, a little annoyed. "It's a hardware issue! Our implants are all internal. I can't operate on myself!"

"Maybe I can?!" Miku exclaimed. "I do have a background in medicine! If you told me what to do…?!"

"You went through med school, Miku-chin, you never became a doctor." Haku reminded her, showing more patience than she felt inside. The other two could feel it though, through the link, and abruptly they got annoyed back.

"How can you sit there and be so selfish?!" Luka demanded.

"Selfish?!" Haku felt her annoyance turning to cold anger, and though she didn't raise her voice her silvery tones took on a frosty intensity. "I'm thinking of you in this! I'm trying to protect you!"

"You're trying to justify it you mean." Luka shot back. She didn't raise her voice either but her crystal tones were hard as diamonds now.

"Justify it? I'm dying, Luka-chin!"

"Dying, not dead! You're all but burying yourself before it's time and asking us to just accept it when there could be something we could do about it! How is that love?!"

Luka's last words seemed to hang in the air, sharp and poignant. Haku's eyes went wide, and so did Miku's. Luka flushed and bit her lip as though trying to bite back the words already spoken, but it was too late. Haku turned and flung the side door of the SUV open and jumped out. The other two were right behind her but she didn't stop. "Haku-chin wait!" Miku cried out.

"Haku-chin stop, I'm sorry!" Luka called.

"Leave me alone!" She shouted back over her shoulder, coming to the end of the block the park was on and turning at random.

It took them a couple of blocks to catch up with her, none of them running in an attempt to avoid drawing attention, and when they did they took her hand and spun her around. Haku turned her head away, tears streaming down her face, not wanting to look them in the eye. "Haku-chin please, I'm sorry." Luka said quietly. Her voice was quiet anyway, but down the link she could feel the storm that the taller girl was inside. The golden glow of love, the pointed pulse of anxiety, the throb of worry. "Really I am. I just… please come back?"

"Please Haku-chin? We love you…" Miku added.

Haku opened her mouth to reply but before she could a flash of brown hair caught her eye at the other end of the block. Meiko was looking around, scanning the crowds of people, and she turned to spot the three of them and began to head over. She was moving stiffly taking measured deliberate strides that didn't seem entirely natural. Haku tensed and turned around toward a building wall to hurriedly begin wiping at her face. Through the link she could see Meiko approaching through Luka's eyes as the taller girl turned around. Miku took a paper napkin out, left over from their breakfast at a crepe stand, and held it out which Haku took gratefully. "Sakine-san." She heard Luka say in a neutral even tone.

"Megurine-san." Meiko replied just as carefully. "I'm glad I found you all."

"How did you find us?" Luka asked. "You or Aria-san keep seeming to pop up."

"Ia-tan found you last time from that rig of yours." Meiko replied with a slight tilt of her head. "She saw Haku and Hatsune-san getting out of a rather rare vehicle there and told me about it." She tsked. "Not very inconspicuous, a Karlmann King."

"We didn't exactly have our pick of cars…" Miku muttered.

"Oh it's fine by me, I'm the sort of girl that appreciates flashy toys and expensive jewelry." Meiko grinned at them. "But I digress. You don't need to worry, we haven't yet been asked if you've procured transportation, and we've learned not to volunteer information."

"What are you doing here then?" Luka wanted to know.

"We were both looking for you, to warn you. We were ordered to meet up with our commanding officer at fourteen hundred hours this afternoon… at the Hatsune mansion."

Panic flooded down their link as they all grew worried and looked to each other. The one thing they'd been trying to avoid and now it was happening anyway "We have to go… My patents..." Miku said fearfully.

"Of course we do." Luka reassured her, then turned back to Meiko and narrowed her eyes. "Why are you warning us? If they knew about the mansion before why didn't they go earlier?"

"That's right," Miku snapped her fingers. "You came before, and they were watching us from that van later. They could have done this at any time. Why let us roam around freely for so long?"

Meiko shook her head at that, "You've been staying off the grid, and until now Sarge was occupied just trying to track you down, sending Ia-tan and I after you. But we can't beat you in a fight and surveillance hasn't done much good, so he's taking further steps now." She held up her wrist in a motion like she was going to check the hour, but her wrist was bare and she didn't even look down. "You don't have much time." She said simply, then turned to walk away.

"Meiko." Haku spoke up for the first time, turning around as she did, and the short haired girl looked back over her shoulder. "Are you alright? You seem… stiff. What did this… this _doctor_ do go you?"

Silence answered that question for a long moment before Meiko turned her head away once more. "Ask me again when we're free of him." She replied, then walked away.

They really didn't have a lot of time so they rushed back to the hulking vehicle to get going. Miku happened to be in the lead as they reached it and didn't hesitate to jump in the driver's side, so the other two moved around to get in. Haku started to reach for the back but Luka pulled her up to the front with her and they ended up sharing the front seat. She thought about resisting it but there wasn't time for it, and a minute later they were on their way. Haku tried to keep her focus on the road but Luka put an arm around her and leaned her head forward to catch her gaze.

"

Haku-chin, I really am sorry. I didn't mean to be so harsh." The taller idol said. Haku felt the golden glow of love from the other girl across their cybernetic mental bridge, and she felt a moment of stubbornness. She wanted to be mad she realized, wanted to have something to blame them for. Why did she want that? That wasn't very nice, and it didn't make sense. Luka filled the answer in for her though, sensing the twisting emotions coming from her. "Maybe because if you're mad at me it makes it easier to force us to accept it?"

Haku sighed, "Maybe… but I… I don't want that. If I do die, I want what time we have left to be full of love and happiness, not bitter anger."

"You're not going to die, Haku-chin." Miku said as she drove them along.

"Miku-chin, I already am-"

The petite girl cut her off. "You're having hardware problems, but there's still a chance we can fix you, especially since we're going home now." She said pointedly, glancing at her sideways. "My parents will know what to do."

"You're not dead yet Haku-chin." Luka said gently, pulling her to her and wrapping her arms around her. "Is it so wrong to hope we can work this out? If it were one of us, wouldn't you do everything you could to save us?" Haku closed her eyes and cuddled in to Luka's embrace. She didn't answer that question, but she didn't have to, they already knew it. Equality in all aspects of their relationship. Besides, circumstances had already changed from what they'd been that morning, it was possible other things would too. They felt her change her mind, felt her accept their point of view. Luka squeezed her tightly around the shoulders, holding her protectively close. "I love you Haku-chin." She said quietly.

"Love you so much." Miku added, reaching one hand over to squeeze Haku's knee as she drove them along.

"I love you both." She told them, then an odd thought struck her. They always seemed to say it to her, and she to them, but when was the last time they'd said it to each other-?

"I love you, Luka-chin." Miku said over top of Haku's internal musings.

"I love you, Miku-chin." Came Luka's reply.

"Sometimes I wish this connecting didn't convey every last tiny thing." Haku muttered against Luka's chest without opening her eyes or looking up. She could feel them smiling though, and she burrowed more deeply in against Luka's chest. She felt the other girl squeeze her around the shoulders more tightly and the golden glow from her shone all the brighter.

It was a bittersweet homecoming around the final turn that put them back on their street for the first time in weeks, and they pulled into the driveway of the giant garage and stopped there since they didn't have a button to open the huge door to it. Miku let the engine die with a thought but the lights continued to pulse on and off slowly and Haku was just as glad to be out of the hulking vehicle with how annoying the glow fading in and out was becoming after days of it non stop. They hurried inside the front entrance and found no one in the entry hall, and Miku reached a hand into a pocket for her phone. They looked at her in concern, but she just shrugged back. "They're already coming, they know we're here now anyway, I don't want to spend who knows how long wandering around." They nodded and once she had her phone booted up she ignored the mass of message notifications that began to pop up and pressed her contacts, hitting call and putting the thing to her ear. After a moment the line connected and Haku could clearly hear Director Hatsune's voice even over the speaker.

"Miku?! Where are you?!"

"I'm upstairs, we just came home. Where are you? There's an attack coming."

"We're in the command center."

"We'll be right down." She said, then hung up and they all rushed for the security elevator in the Director's wing. They only had to go down one floor, but they realized they had no idea where their security cards were; they hadn't had need of their badges in weeks and it seemed a ridiculous thing to get hung up on. They turned to the maintenance stairs which let them in, but once they'd gone down to the first sublevel there was a chip reader there too. They could get into the stairwell but not out. They were reduced to banging on the door until one of the staff noticed them and called Miku's parents over. Doctor Hatsune made it to the door first, flung it open, then threw her arms around Miku in a motherly hug.

"Thank God! We were so worried about you! We tried to call and text and everything!" She paused as she looked them over and then asked, "What happened to your hair and eyes?!" The three girls glanced at each other and blinked, they'd forgotten to change them back. With a thought they stained their hair back to their usual light blue, pink, and white and reverted their eyes to green, blue, and red respectively. The doctor gasped and put a hand to her mouth as she let her daughter go.

"It's a long story…" Luka said, trying to keep things brief."

"We had our phones off." Miku added.

"What's happened, why couldn't you come back?" The Director asked intently. He didn't seem angry, just extremely concerned. "We had only the warning you sent back with Megpoid-san and Kasane-san to go on, and that wasn't much beyond them telling us what happened."

"The government found us," Luka said shortly, "We tried to keep them from following us here, they don't seem to know about the other Vocaloids, just the three of us and they want us. There's no time though, they're coming here. Now."

It was clear from their eyes that they had more questions, that they wanted to take more time, but there was no time. Releasing her daughter Mira looked to her husband, "I'll see to the evacuation." He nodded as she hurried off and he gestured toward the elevator, leading them over to it and calling it with his chipped badge.

"We've always been prepared for the eventuality that the government discovered us, but from what you told us before they may have had dealings with the Yowanes." The doors dinged open and they all stepped in. He slid his badge into a gap in the button panel and a hidden section of panel fell away to reveal a few more buttons, leaving Haku to wonder if Miku's parents or her own had come up with that little trick. He pressed a six and the elevator began to descend. "We have a couple of safe houses we can go to after Camui-san returns with Megpoid-san and Kasane-san from the field, but we need some assurances first, and I need to know what we're facing, whatever you girls have found out. It sounds like they don't know about our entire organization?"

"From what we've learned so far it was Haku-chin's parents who somehow had dealings with the government in the past, and they've been able to create their own version of Vocaloids." Luka told him, causing him to pause and stare at her as the elevator dinged and the doors slid open.

"You realize that means…" He leveled a serious look at Haku.

"That my parents sold the Vocaloid Chip." She replied, and he nodded gravely. "They can't have given them everything though; Meiko seems to be close to us in raw power, but I don't think her power core is as good as ours, perhaps her implants aren't either."

"Luka-chin had no problem facing her in a fight, raw power or not." Miku agreed.

"Well… that is extremely disturbing." Her father replied, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose with the middle finger of one hand. His deep bass voice sounded troubled. "Be that as it may, what can you tell me of their forces they're bringing today? Is there a chance to resolve the situation peacefully? Perhaps come to some sort of agreement?" He asked as he led the way out of the elevator and down a slate grey metal hallway with deck plates ringing beneath their feet. Haku looked around curiously as they walked, this basement level wasn't one she'd seen before and it looked more like a bunker than a science lab.

"I don't think so." Luka answered slowly. "Their commanding officer seems… unstable. We've witnessed acts of brutality from him, and he seems bent on 'acquiring' Haku-chin and perhaps Miku-chin and I as well. But we don't think he knows about the other Vocaloids, or anything about our organization. He seems to have little actual information about us, and I think he's just coming here to try to exert pressure on the three of us through yourself and Doctor Hatsune, using family to force us to surrender ourselves to him."

"Sakine-san is coming too, and I'd be like totally shocked if Aria-san didn't show." Miku put in.

"Any military forces?" Her father asked leading them up to a door at the end of the hallway where the corridor split at a tee and held his badge out to beep the door open.

"We don't know." Luka replied as he opened the door and led them inside, and the girls all let out a gasp of shock. "What… IS this, Director?!"

"It's a friggin armory!" Miku shouted, and she was right. Before them stretched a vast storage room filled with shelves lined with every sort of portable ordinance and small arms imaginable. Guns, rifles, hand grenades, timer mines, fuses, detonators, plastic explosives, flak shells, body armor, protective eyewear, it seemed to go on and on. They all turned to look up at Motsu and the Director turned to a shelf to pick up a small automatic handgun, Haku wasn't sure what type, and turn toward the girls, then held it out briefly.

"You may want to consider arming yourselves." He told them.

Luka didn't seem to like the idea one bit. "Why would we need these? We are our own weapons."

He shrugged and slipped the thing under his coat into the waistband behind his back, covering it with his doctor's cloak. Haku shifted her eyes up to the tall man and tilted her head. "What we could really use, Director, if it's at all possible, is a Vocaloid Core."

"A V-Core?" He asked bemused. "What would you need one of those for?"

"We recovered a vehicle from my parent's destroyed lab while trying to find somewhere to hide, and it's provided us a safe place to be as well as transportation, but it's been modified to run off of a V-Core, and the one inside it has been damaged. I thought I might fix it if possible but I'm not sure how, and a replacement might serve better." She explained, trying to be brief but not entirely sure she succeeded.

He blinked at them for a long moment then tilted his head. "You girls haven't had it easy have you?"

"Oh no daddy, self imposed exile has proven to be been a real breeze." Miku said flatly.

He gave his daughter a stare just as flat in return for her sass then turned back toward the door. "I believe I can help you in a number of ways." He said, and they followed him out of the armory, which he locked behind them once more, then they went down another branch in the hallway to another locked door which he beeped open. This room was similar to the first in size and layout except that rather than guns it held a large array of tech. Computer hardware, laptops, tablets, earpieces, screens, cables, cybernetic devices, all the highest end tech stored on or in anti static bags. Moving over to an empty counter he reached underneath to retrieve a hard plastic case which he set on that countertop and opened to reveal a padded foam interior made for transporting electronic equipment. From one shelf he collected one of thee orbs about the size of a balled fist and placed it carefully into the case, and Haku glanced up at him.

"That core is significantly smaller than the damaged one in the SUV. Will it still work?" She asked him.

"It's one of our newest models, but it should function just the same. But incase the cables don't line up with whatever your parents did, we have more." He added a bundle of cables to the case from another shelf and Haku nodded. Next he went over to a shelf with the earpieces and added three of them to the case. "These are like the ones we use in the field but they're linked directly to our satellite in orbit, not to any cell towers. Therefore they can't be bugged or traced, but if they're blocked from the sky too much they can't connect. We'll monitor the default channel at all times incase you need us, and if you can I'd like you to at least report in every evening at ten pm so we can stay in contact this time."

"This time?" Miku asked dubiously.

He stared at her. "I'm assuming you're leaving again after this."

Luka blinked and nodded slowly, "If you think that's best, we're prepared too."

"Why?" Miku said suddenly sounding worried. "The government knows about our Compound, why should we have to leave home again?"

"Because they don't know everything and splitting up is the best way to keep it that way." Her father told her. "We can stay in touch through the satellite link and make plans as we go, but until this threat is passed we can't stay together. If we did then all they would have to do to bring us all down would be to catch one of us. So for safety we have to scatter."

"But what about you and mom?!" Miku demanded frantically.

Motsu put a hand on one of her shoulders and leveled a serious look at her. "We're hardly defenseless, Miku. We have safe houses and contingency plans. Once this threat has passed we can all come home, but until then this is the best course of action. And no matter what happens, if they do get to us, you can't risk yourselves to free us or take revenge. That would just be playing into their hands. Promise me."

"But-!" Miku started to object.

"Promise me!" He insisted intently, and Miku swallowed and nodded. The Director turned his expectant gaze on them and Haku was taken aback but she nodded along with Luka. "Good." He said, giving his daughter's shoulder a squeeze before letting his arm drop. He turned back to the shelves and began loading more hardware into the case; a laptop, a couple of tablets, a little of everything from around the room. They watched him work in silence for a bit but then Luka couldn't keep quiet any more. Haku felt her girlfriend's need to ask before the words came and tried to get her to stop but Luka ignored her silent pleas and spoke up anyway.

"Director, there's something wrong with Haku-chin. If we're not going to be staying then we'd like some guidance before we go on what we can do to fix her."

Pausing in his task he turned around and stepped over to look down at Haku, and in spite of herself she put one foot back as though to move away, but she made herself hold still after that and he put a hand gently on her arm as he had with Miku. A familial gesture, and it warmed her inside, calmed her. That gesture as much as anything made her feel like a part of their family; the Hatsunes had accepted her after all. "What's wrong?" He asked.

Haku swallowed then closed her eyes and sighed. Once she felt calm she opened them again and looked up at the tall man. "I've been throwing driver errors. For the past couple of weeks at random I get a shooting pain in my head and a red warning messages flashes across my vision that says 'Programming conflict, driver error, critical system incompatibility.'"

Motsu's eyes narrowed as he peered at her in consideration, almost as though he could look inside her head without any sort of diagnostic equipment. "When did this start?" He asked. "What triggered the first one?"

"I don't know exactly." She replied carefully. "It started after the encounter in the subway. Sakine-san shot me with a dart filled with some sort of biomimetic fluid that was designed to incapacitate me via my nanites, and I was sick for a couple of days after that. It didn't have any effect on Luka-chin or Miku-chin though, but it wore off after a little while. The first error was the day after I got better, while I was doing nothing more than walking along a street thinking about things."

Miku winced and shook her head. "It's still so… wierd… listening to us talking about our nanites and our errors and stuff…" The pink haired beauty didn't say anything but she could feel Luka's commiseration with the statement even as she took the petite girl's arm in hers in a comforting gesture.

Director Hatsune scratched at his chin thoughtfully with a thumb and forefinger for a long moment or two before shaking his head. "This is quite serious, but I don't see what a serum targeting your nanites would have to do with a driver conflict in your head. 'Critical system incompatibility…'" He murmured, then turned around to the shelves, eyes running over them as he ran a hand through his short cropped teal hair before spotting a shelf full of little containers with thumb drives. Rooting through it he glanced at each which all seemed to have labels on the back, sorting through them as he spoke. "Without running a full diagnostic on you which we don't have time for, I can't say exactly what's going on, but it sounds to me like whatever programming your parents added to run your… energy draining abilities is conflicting with the standard Vocaloid hardware we developed together." He avoided saying 'souldrinker' but the three girls caught it anyway and Miku and Luka winced slightly. Neither of them liked thinking about Haku like that.

"Then what do we do?" Luka asked, a note of worry in her voice. "That's the same conclusion Haku-chin came to, but we don't know how fix it."

Finding the drive he wanted the Director turned around to hold it out to Haku, and she took it with a curious tilt to her head. "I'm afraid I can't say exactly how, not without looking over your code." He gestured at the drive in her hands. "This flash drive contains all of the default base code for Vocaloid functionality. Don't alter it, copy it to the laptop first, then you can work on it. It should provide you with a baseline comparison for that side of you at the very least. You're brilliant Yowa- er, Haku. I believe genius naturally runs in your family. You may be inexperienced in such things, but I've never met anyone, not even your parents, with as much of a knack for rooting out answers as you." Haku blushed under the compliments and couldn't keep herself from glancing away. She caught sight of her girlfriends, Miku with a look of pleased surprise at her father's words, Luka with a wide eyed yet prideful expression. She felt nothing but love and pride in her coming from them down their link. Well, maybe worry too, underneath those. The director let his hand drop and turned back to the case. "The only way to fix this error is to find the lines of coding which are conflicting with your hardware and correct them. You'll have to do your best at it, but we will support you via the satellite link as we are able."

"Thank you, Direc-" Haku cut herself off, as he had with her name. Then she blinked up at him and changed it to, "Thanks dad."

He paused as he was retrieving an odd looking device from a shelf and glanced at her, and Miku piped up. "Thanks daddy!" right atop Luka's "Thanks dad!"

Motsu coughed into a hand and said gruffly, "Ofcourse… daughters." He turned to show them the device, waking the screen up. It was smaller than a tablet but bigger than a smartphone, and he gestured at the interface that immediately came up. "This is a souldrinker detector. It's linked to our system as well, and it has maps of the city loaded into it. It won't be as good as the command center, but it will alert you when there are souldrinkers detected and where they are. I'm going to send Camui-san to ground in one of our safe houses with one of these devices in the northern end of the city, Hibiki-san to the east, and Kasane-san and Megpoid-san to one in the south. I'm hoping if we can spread ourselves out enough we can at least continue to fight against the creatures as they show up. Please do your best as well." They nodded and he handed the device to Luka, and the taller girl put it into a hidden pocket in the folds of her gold trimmed black skirt.

"We'll do what we can." Luka promised him.

Shutting and latching the case he lifted it free of the table then turned to Haku once more. He reached into a pocket and pulled out another flash drive, this one pink with white floral print, and held it out to her. She smiled at it fondly and reached out to accept it. "Thank you." She said again, and he nodded as she tucked it into her own pocket. Then the director led the way out of the room, locked it once more, then they followed him back to the elevator and returned to the ground floor and made their way back to the garage. They opened the garage doors and made their way to the monster of an SUV sitting in the driveway to store the case inside that Miku's father had put together for them then the director checked the time.

"Not long now. Why don't you girls head inside to get anything else you might need before-" He cut off as the roar of an engine louder than any car would have drew all their eyes to the street. A huge military vehicle came into view from around a corner, bigger than their huge SUV even, with eight tires and a mounted gun on top. It wasn't a tank exactly, but was definitely armored and combat ready. They all tensed as the thing pulled around in a little loop then up on to the sidewalk, effectively blocking the street off in that direction and leaving them the one escape route. Haku hoped that Doctor Hatsune was evacuating people out of the back of the compound. The door, or hatch, or whatever it was called on the side of a vehicle like that, opened with a loud metallic clang and the biggest man Haku had ever seen in her life got out and hopped to the ground, ignoring the short step ladder on the side of the vehicle all together. Clad head to toe in military garb with no skin other than his head showing, he was even bigger than the bouncers at Hibikase, perhaps a few inches taller with shoulders a little wider and arms a little bigger around. His chest was like a couple of barrels strapped together, and when he hit the pavement it rang with a sound like metal striking concrete. He looked up at them with wide menacing dark eyes from under the brim of a military beret and smiled viciously.

"So." His voice bounced off the concrete in a contrabass even deeper and more resonating than Director Hatsune's. "We meet at last, Yowane Haku. You have no idea the trouble you've put me to." Haku blanched at being addressed in a voice like that and the big man shifted his gaze to the other girls. "And Hatsune Miku, Megurine Luka, such famous and distinguished guests. I've been assured you will be just as helpful in the days to come."

Motsu stepped forward, cutting a dangerous figure even in his white lab coat, but before he took more than two steps the massive gun atop the armored vehicle before them rotated with a loud whir of hydraulics and trained on him. He stopped moving where he was but he spoke anyway, his voice surprisingly steady and calm. "This is private property sir, and unless you have a warrant or search order with you I must ask you to leave."

The military man looked to the doctor curiously with a tilt to his head. "Ah, yes. The father." He arched an eyebrow and glanced around. "I had initially come here to meet with you and your wife regarding your daughter and her friends, but by happy coincidence they are here already." He glanced down the street behind them briefly and tilted his head. "A very… happy… coincidence… wouldn't you say, Sakine-san? Aria-san?"

They all turned the opposite way down the street to see the two government girls walking up from behind them. So, that had been the plan the entire time, to cut them off from escape. Haku felt trapped, hunted, and her mind began to run wild with thoughts. Ideas of what to do, scenarios for how this could play out, ways they could get out of it, calculations for each variable, all flying through her head so fast she had formulated and discarded a couple dozen in the space between one footfall and the next as the other two girls walked toward them. Her mind was racing so fast her girlfriends glanced at her in concern, but she was slowly coming to a conclusion she didn't like.

"Very much so." Meiko said by way of agreement with her commanding officer. "With you here to lead us, we cannot possibly fail this time."

That rang in Haku's ears like obvious ego stroking platitudes, but the big man seemed to soak it up as he turned to the four people beside the big black SUV. In a ringing tone he announced loudly, "Yowane Haku, Megurine Luka, Hatsune Miku, you are all hereby under arrest on the authority of Public Security Intelligence. Your rights will be read to you as soon as we have you detained. Please come quietly and I assure you everything will go smoothly." His mouth curled in a grin as vicious as the rest of him and his tone dropped to a much quieter one. "That being said and out of the way, if you do feel the need to resist, then by all means, please do."

Silence fell as everyone stared at everyone else, each trying to gauge what the other would do. Meiko and Ia were looking at the other three girls with looks on their faces so blank and unreadable it was obvious to Haku that they were trying desperately to hide their real feelings on the situation, and if they were that worried about it then it was clear they'd been ordered to attack if they resisted. The massive military man seemed as though he had every last muscle in his body tensed and ready for action, that malicious smirk fixed firmly upon his face. What really concerned her however was the way Director Hatsune was slowly reaching his hand around behind his back under his lab coat. He didn't have sonic abilities nor a military background so the gun he'd brought was his only defense, but Haku could feel that it would only make matters worse not better with the way that massive barrel atop the huge army vehicle was still trained on him. She tried hard to will him not to pull it, not to do anything rash, but it was no use, and just like that everything happened at once. His arm whipped out and around and several gunshots rang out as he shot wide, and the cannon aimed at him shifted down a fraction further and there came the boom of a shell from within. Time seemed to slow in that moment for Haku, and she took a deep breath. Meiko and Ia were already moving, their commanding officer seeming to uncoil like a spring toward them. A bullet moved so much faster than a person though, so while they seemed to be moving through molasses all of a sudden, the huge metal shell bursting forth from the end of the cannon seemed to be moving like a baseball thrown by a professional pitcher. With a bare instant to react Haku flung her arms wide and let out a deep low resonating note and a pure white sonic sphere erupted around her large enough to encompass the four of them. The sonic energy barrier she had used before had served well enough in those instances and it was all her instincts could come up with to save them, and fortunately this time was no exception. The shell burst against the top of the barrier with a loud bang, and a moment later several more followed as the cannon let off several rounds, whoever inside the armored car operating the huge gun apparently unsure why their target was still up.

The huge military man rounded on his transport and let out a booming "CEASE FIRE!" The cannon immediately went silent and rose back into an idle position and he turned his glare back on them. "We'll have to do this ourselves." He pointed at Meiko and Ia. "I will take Yowane, capture the others alive if possible but they are expendable." And with that he rushed in.

Haku let her barrier fall knowing that if she kept it up they would be locked in a perpetual stalemate. They were going to have to find some other way to get out of this. The instant her barrier fell the huge man stepped up to them, but even as she turned to face him Director Hatsune whipped his gun around toward the military man. Motsu was too late however because his target was in range and reacted with all the speed and training befitting a combat veteran. Haku watched in slow motion as the huge man brought a forearm up to stop the director's arm. There was the sound of metal on bone and she tried to jump up to grab the arm and pull it away but despite being a powerful Vocaloid she was still only possessed of the physical body strength of the teenage dancing girl she really was, and the government officer had no apparent trouble resisting her pull. He reached his other hand up, grabbed Motsu's wrist over his own arm, and twisted down. Director Hatsune let out a wordless hollar of rage and pain as his arm snapped cleanly and his gun clattered to the ground.

"Daddy!" Miku screamed but she was already occupied by Ia blocking her way, and the two began to circle each other, musical notes emanating from therm as they countered each other's sonic attacks. Miku was clearly the superior Vocaloid, but the gap between her and Ia's power wasn't enough that she could take her lightly. Elbows and wrists flicked out and little sonic booms split the air as they hummed at each other, each trying to catch the other off balance. Ia had little real field experience and it showed, but for the moment she was giving Miku enough of a challenge to keep her occupied. Ia was surprisingly lithe and elegant, her body bending and twisting in all the right ways as she dueled with the pretty light blue haired girl. Miku certainly wasn't pulling any punches but she seemed to be being careful, keeping the pale haired girl at bay but focusing her sonics in such a way so as not to seriously injure her should a wave get through.

Luka and Meiko were engaged in their own skirmish as well, and it seemed like the idol was trying the same counter game as the last time they'd fought, but Meiko hadn't failed to learn something from their previous encounter it seemed and was doing a better job at not telegraphing her attacks than before. Luka was having to put more effort into her moves this time, countering more often than dodging and using more power to boot. The brown haired girl had her opponent on defense, pushing the idol around in the street with her attacks, forcing her to give ground, but even with that fact it was painfully obvious that Meiko was still outclassed in every way by her blue eyed foe. Luka have the ground willingly enough, her gaze cold and calculating as she watched for any opening, any weakness, any vantage to exploit.

Haku had only a moment to register these things before her own opponent shoved Director Hatsune back and grabbed her. His hand encompassed her collar bone, side of her neck, and part of her shoulder, and he squeezed with a grip like iron that made her scream in pain. "Haku-chin!" Luka cried out and tried to get to her, but Meiko got in her way again. This wasn't the graceful clean style of dance they were used to, this was a ruthless brawl. Everything had exploded so fast and none of Haku's projections had predicted this. She tried to form a note to unleash a sonic burst at him but his grip on her collar and throat was so painful the only sound she could produce was a gurgle of agony.

"I've got you now." The military man said triumphantly, lifting her into the air with his grip on her collarbone. She squealed and grabbed his wrist reflexively with her hands to hold on as she felt her feet leave the ground. "I must say that after all the trouble you've caused me and the things I've read about you three in the robots' reports I'd expected more of a fight out of you!"

"You want more fight?!" Came a diamond hard demand, and he turned his head to see Luka coming toward him. A pink energy barrier much like Haku's white one surrounded her and for a moment Haku couldn't see how she was producing it, but then she heard the faint humming noise coming from the pink haired beauty, like the music they could produce from their very bodies except channeled into a sonic ability, freeing up her lips for attack even while her body defended. Meiko was flinging energy wave after energy wave at her but they were breaking over the idol's shield like water over a rock. Ignoring her attacker all together Luka stepped right up to the big man, pursed her lips, and let out a low keening note. He shifted slightly as she leaned toward him, putting the arm holding Haku up as a block. Although there was no way he could have heard the sound so far outside of normal human perception ranges, the idol's stance was obviously aggressive and when he shifted his arm the sonic wave hit him and, tore at his uniform, and… just seemed to melt away. All five girls stopped and gaped in shock at the metallic glint in the light of the sun as the blast tore at the military fatigues on his arm, ripping them open to reveal a smooth metal alloy where skin should have been. He looked down at his ruined sleeve and sighed.

"Well, I didn't think that would happen, but now you can see your little energy tricks don't work on me. My arm and leg can deflect them." He lifted Haku another few centimetres into the air. "A little side bonus to my cybernetic prosthetics that made me whole again after my wound in combat. You're sonic output means nothing to me."

Despite the excruciating pain in her shoulder Haku's mind began to connect dots, thoughts flitting through her head in a fraction of a fraction of an instant. Discharged due to injury, files taken from him talking about being crippled, cybernetic prosthetics, his need to capture them, cybernetic augmentation, metallic clang on pavement when he'd jumped down from the massive military transport, sound of metal on bone when he'd broken the director's arm, vice like iron grip on her collar… she opened her eyes wide, looking down at him. "Then…" she croaked hoarsely. "Then how about… input instead of… output…?" He blinked in confusion as she shifted her grip on his metal arm. She'd never done this on purpose before, but… she focused on need. Need to save her girlfriends, need to get free of this madman. Instinct and emotion. Need. A dark black sort of anti light sprang up around her hands on his arm which encompassed his cybernetic limb like a sudden wildfire. His eyes went wide and he loosed his metallic grip on her trying to drop her but, she held onto his forearm, dangling there from his wrist. She could feel the electricity rushing out of his cybernetic limbs as she drew the power out of him, sucked the energy out his arm and leg prosthetics in mere seconds. He roared, whether in fury or pain, and abruptly his arm fell uselessly to his side. Discharged of power it was now dead weight she was holding on to, and his leg on the same side was just as useless. Two hunks of metal and the weight of a girl dangling from a cripple's body, they toppled over unceremoniously and only a last second dive forward by Luka to catch her and pull her sideways saved Haku from being landed on by the huge man. Without her barier up, having had to let it go to get to Haku, Luka had to step quickly to avoid the good muscular arm that grabbed for her. Luka backed up in a hurry as their backs bumped up against the military transport.

"Open fire!" The officer boomed out from his position on the ground, and the cannon began to swing around. Miku immediately disengaged from Ia since they'd all stopped to gape at the metal limbed man and ran to protect her father. Still acting on instinct Haku spun around and flung her still dark light glowing hands up to touch the government vehicle. The draw this time was massive and she gritted her teeth as the entire thing seemed to catch fire, a dark fire with no heat, and as before it took only a matter of seconds as she drew all of the vehicles power out of it. The big gun sagged downward, as useless now as it's commander's metal limbs, every light and circuit dark.

Haku turned around feeling charged like a living power cable to find every eye wide in shock and fixed on her. "Ha… Haku-chin…?" Luka asked in concern, knowing what she'd done, knowing she'd used the power of a souldrinker to save them, but she didn't respond, instead walking over to about a meter outside of arm's reach of the big man, trying to ignore the throbbing ache in her collar bone, pulling her outward calm serene mask over herself.

"Well Sarge." She gestured behind her at his vehicle. "I've broken your tech, your conventional firepower can't touch us, and Meiko and Ia aren't up to the task of capturing us. I'd say you've lost this round."

"You're a stupid toy who thinks more of herself than she is. Did you not stop to think that I can call for backup?" He snarled. "Do you think they're the only two cyborgs we own? Or even the best ones?"

"You may have more resources at your disposal, but you can't get them here before we leave. You're going to have to track us down all over again." She paused and looked up at Meiko and Ia, the two seeming confused and waiting for orders now that the battle was lost. "I'm afraid you're going to have to go back alone and regroup… once you wake up." He looked up at her confused and opened his mouth to say something but she didn't give him the chance. Flicking a wrist and humming a brief dull note that seared her bruised throat she thumped him hard enough on the head with a focused sonic burst to knock him out cold. Then she turned to the hulking rig behind her and did the same to the hatches, putting enough force out to jam them shut incase anyone inside got the idea to come out and look. With all of that done she turned around, then finally let out a cry of pain and slumped forward.

Luka caught her and lowered her gently to the ground, then tugged tenderly at her shirt collar. She let out another cry of pain as Luka murmured comfortingly, "Shhh, it's okay Haku-chin, I've got you. I need to see… okay, it's alright, it doesn't look broken, just a little bruised."

"A little…?" Haku said dryly. The pink haired beauty was well aware she could see it through her eyes, a mass of various shades of dark purples and sickly yellows, and she smiled back then helped Haku to her feet, more than half supporting her. They moved over to where Miku was helping her dad, having removed his lab coat and was now wrapping it gently around his arm and torso like a makeshift sling with the arms of the coat.

"Mira must have completed the evacuation by now." He was telling her. "The entire compound is in lockdown." He was right, the windows were all shuttered on the inside with the metal security slabs covering them and the entire building was sealed. "I'll go to a hospital for treatment then meet up with your mother at our designated safe house."

"Let us take you." She told him with concern as she finished knotting the lab coat.

"No, I can make it." He said and got to his feet, wincing in pain but still standing tall. The steel core of will all Hatsunes had inside them always made Haku a bit jealous even though it was awe inspiring. "You need to get away from here as quickly as you can." He told them. "No arguing." He added sternly when Miku opened her mouth with a stubborn look on her face.

"Yes daddy." She said sulkily. He nodded, satisfied with that, bent down to retrieve his dropped gun, then turned toward the garage. He stopped for a moment to look back over his shoulder at them. "I'm proud of you all." Miku's green eyes widened in surprise at the open praise and he smiled briefly before turning back to walk up to a car. He got in, started it up, and pulled out and away down the unblocked side of the road.

Miku turned to them with a smile of pride that turned into a wince when she saw her girlfriends. "Oh, uh, Haku-chin, that uh… that doesn't look… too bad."

Haku rolled her eyes, "I can see it through your eyes, Miku-chin." The petite girl winced again and Haku turned when she caught motion out of the corner of her eye. Meiko and Ia stood there looking worried.

"We're sorry we had to fight you!" Ia wrung her hands anxiously. "He ordered us to!"

"What do you have to do now?" Haku asked.

"You knocked him out cold before he could give us new orders." Meiko said. "Our programming will force us to go back by tonight, but until then…?" She shrugged.

The girls all looked at each other for a long tense moment before Haku shifted her weight to lean on Luka with her hurt shoulder more and held out her good hand invitingly. "Are you ready to come with us?" She asked them with as much warmth and promise as she could. "Are you ready to be free of those who would treat you like property?"

Their eyes widened in shock and the two government girls traded a look before turning back to the Vocaloids. "N-Now?" Ia asked incredulously. "Right now?!" She seemed hopeful and anxious about it at the same time.

"What better time?!" Miku asked with a broad smile. "Haku-chin totes just kicked your commander's butt and you're both here right now with nowhere to be and no one to stop you!"

Meiko narrowed her eyes slightly in hesitation and peered at them. "I want to, but… are we… welcome?" She shifted her gaze to Luka with a concerned look. "We've butted heads in the past."

Luka returned her gaze evenly for a long moment, then offered a small smile. "I had no issue with you, Sakine-san, only in what you represented. Haku-chin believes she she can save you, believes you're worth saving. I trust her implicitly, so I believe it too."

"Come with us." Haku said, having never let her offered hand fall. Ia stared up at Meiko pleadingly for another few heartbeats then at last the short haired girl nodded and took Haku's hand, and Ia gasped in relief and put her own atop both.

"Okay Haku. We place ourselves in your care." Meiko said.

"Please save us, Yowane-san!" The pale haired girl added earnestly.

"We're going to need more sleeping space…" Miku said thoughtfully. "We can't go back to the onsen."

"Let's get out of here first." Luka said eying the fallen military man and the giant transport. "We can get out of city limits at least then talk about what to do."

Miku eyed the Compound dubiously. "I wish we'd had time to get some of our things, I'm sick of wearing the same clothes…" she shifted her gaze to the garage and her eyes widened. "Daddy left the garage open. Why…?"

"Well it doesn't lead directly into the main building, maybe he thought we might need-" Luka began.

"Cars!" Miku rushed forward and let out a little cheer. "Our cars are still here, we have to take them!"

"Is that smart?' Haku asked dubiously. "We already have one incredibly conspicuous vehicle."

"Oh come on!" Miku nearly whined. "Please?!"

Luka sighed and shook her head. "I can't deny you anything…"

"Yay!" Miku ran for her beloved Ferrari then paused and looked back. "Wait, who's driving what?"

"You take yours, Luka-chin can take the Maserati, I'll take the others in the SUV." Haku suggested.

"Are you sure you're up to driving, Haku-chin?" Luka asked in concern.

"Oh my gosh! What about your motorcycle, Luka-chin?!" Miku burst out.

"We can drive." Meiko offered, and they turned to look at her curiously. "I mean, if it helps."

There was a tense moment of silence that followed, but there was no reason not trust them, so Haku offered a compromise. "Aria-san can drive the Karlmann, and I'll sit in the passenger seat, and Meiko can follow on the motorcycle?" She looked up at Luka intently. Down their link she added silently so only her girlfriends could hear, " _They've agreed to come with us, and they've shown protectiveness toward each other. If I have Aria-san in the Karlmann I'll have control over it via direct link, insurance that Meiko will follow because I have her, and the three of us will still be in communication through our connection while we drive in case something goes wrong_."

After another hesitant glance at the other two Luka nodded in acceptance of Haku's plan. "Will you follow on the motorcycle, Sakine-san?" Luka asked.

Meiko nodded in agreement and they all got themselves situated. Luka was extremely delicate with Haku as she helped her up into the front passenger seat of the big SUV, the link carrying both love and worry about the dark purple and black bruise that had spread over most of Haku's shoulder and neck now, and though she tried her best to keep from wincing or gasping to hide the hurt she knew her girlfriends could feel her pain from her presence in their minds. Once she was situated and Ia had taken the driver's seat they watched out the window as the pink haired beauty rolled her black and rose chrome bike out out of the garage and handed Meiko the key and her helmet. Haku was worried because she knew how much that motorcycle meant to the idol but Luka just smiled as she handed them over. When Meiko nodded in return Luka turned to get in the Maserati and pulled it out of the garage, and last came Miku in the Ferrari. When the garage door was shut Haku started the engine of the Karlmann with a thought causing Ia to jump in surprise then giggle nervously.

"I wasn't expecting…" she said apologetically, then trailed off nervously.

Haku smiled at her reassuringly. "It's alright. Will you follow Miku-chin?" She pointed at the Ferrari as the light blue haired girl pulled out into the street, and Ia followed after. Meiko came next on the motorcycle, and Luka brought up the rear.

" _I wonder if we'll ever come back home again_ …" Came a thought from Miku in her mind. None of them had that answer, and they made their way toward the edge of the city.

"Is it… uhm… supposed to be blinking like this?" Ia asked gesturing at the way the lights all over the dashboard were pulsing on and off.

"No." Haku replied as she began to go through the files on the computer once more. "It's damaged, but we can fix it later." With little else to do since she wasn't driving and had no girlfriend with her to cuddle she flicked through the files on the little network she'd created out of the Karlmann's computer, the diagnostic terminal in the back, and the laptop she'd finally gotten online after charging it on the built in dock on the terminal. She'd already searched the SUV's data thoroughly over the past weeks and the terminal only held diagnostic tools, but she hadn't finished going through the laptop earlier, so she let the files on it drift passed on her 3D vision as the vehicle lumbered along.

After a little while Ia spoke up again. "I can't tell you how much it means to me that you're doing this for Meiko-tan. And me too of course. Thank you so much, Yowane-san."

She smiled back at the pale haired girl. "You can call me Haku now, if you'd like." A file full of theoretical notes, a document with complex equations and algorithms, a lot of those actually, an old dry cleaning invoice…? She deleted that one.

"Oh! Uhm! Okay! And you can call me Ia."

"Ia-tan, or Ia-chan?" A list of possible modifications and alterations for nanites and program enhancements to their functions seemed interesting to look at, she'd look that one over later.

"Oh. Ehhhh… only Meiko-tan calls me Ia-tan." She replied.

Haku nodded in acceptance. " _I wonder if they're together_ …?" Came a thought from Miku, her girlfriends clearly able to hear the conversion through her ears.

" _Maybe. Aria-san did mention her 'special friend' that day in the mall._ " Luka thought back.

Haku glanced at Ia out of the corner of her eye. The pale haired girl was blushing faintly. She couldn't tell for sure… " _I'm not positive but_ -" she cut off abruptly as she caught sight of a filename that made her sit up in her seat reflexively, then at that same moment her vision turned red. The sudden pain in her head drowned everything else out and all she could see in her vision were the angry red warning letters, " _Warning: Programming conflict, driver error, critical system incompatibility._ " The agony was so bad she whited out, all of her senses seeming to shut off making her aware of nothing but the pain, like red letters floating on a white backdrop. It lasted for three or four eons before finally, blessedly, beginning to subside, receding an iota at a time. When her vision finally began to clear and the letters faded the world seemed to take on color again, slowly filling in the white void. She was on her back again, laying on the side of the road just outside of the city with her head cradled in Miku's lap and her hands being held by Luka in a firm grip. Four intensely worried faces started down at her from above and she started to sit up. Miku and Luka responded immediately pushing her gently but firmly back down but they didn't need to. Letting out a moan of pain she slumped back into Miku's lap and squeezed her eyes shut. Her head felt leaden and pounded horribly. This was the first time the agony had ever lasted passed the warning letters fading away. She was scared, terrified to her core. How close had she come that time? How far away had she really been from death?

" _You're not dying, you're not_!" Miku's thoughts burst into her mind so fiercely and so suddenly Haku jumped in startlement which just made her head throb worse. The petite girl winced too, and she wondered how much of her pain they'd experienced with her, which made her feel regret and shame.

" _It's not your fault Haku-chin_." Luka put into her mind. " _You probably just had a stronger reaction this time because of what you did in the fight back there, that's all._ "

It was possible, but then, it was also possible they were just trying to make her feel better too. They could undoubtedly feel how scared she was, the same as she could feel how afraid they were too. " _Luka-chin, my hands_ -" she cut off the thought as the idol loosened her grip but still held on. Haku flexed her fingers to get the blood flowing again.

" _Sorry… you were squeezing your head so hard I was worried…_ " came the return thought.

"Are you okay, Haku-chan?" Ia asked worriedly. The entire mental exchange had taken a fraction of a moment, and the other two girls hadn't noticed enough to be curious.

"Ia-tan pulled over so fast I wasn't sure what had happened, but your girlfriends were already stopping too. It was kinda creepy." Meiko glanced between the others.

"I get… headaches sometimes…" Haku told them, and they blinked and nodded, clearly not satisfied with that answer but apparently not wanting to press it right then. Haku stretched her cybermind out to find the file on the laptop she'd noticed just before she'd thrown her error and brought it back up in her 3D vision so Miku and Luka could see. "I think I know where we can go." The document contained a spreadsheet list of locations and facility status of each. It was a little out of date because it still listed the car warehouse as yellow highlighted status that read 'temporarily closed but usable' however several other locations had red statuses that said things like 'abandoned; discovered by enemies' or 'abandoned; unlikely to remain secure' or the like. One of them she knew, and it had a red status that said read 'abandoned; to obvious a location.'

" _What's that list_?" Miku thought at her.

"Where?" Meiko asked.

" _My parents have a bunch of labs, and it seems we know why now. They keep moving to avoid being discovered. This one was-_ " Haku replied mentally then switched to speaking aloud, "The house I grew up in at the edge of the city, on a private lot up in the hills. We can hide there."

"Doesn't that seem a little… obvious?" Luka asked dubiously.

"If my parents have abandoned it, they won't be returning to it. And if the government thinks it's abandoned too they won't have a reason to think to look there. It's exactly because it's too obvious a place, and they'll think we're on the run.

"Like hiding in plain sight." Ia said.

"Sarge knows you're not on good terms with your parents." Meiko put in. "I'd be shocked if he thought to check anything regarding them while trying to find you."

"Alright, but we should hurry." Luka said glancing at the sky. "We don't have a lot of time to waste if you're going to have the chance to free them before it's too late."

"Are you up to moving, Haku-chin?" Miku asked worriedly

"I'll be okay." Haku said with more confidence than she felt, but they still had to help her back up into her seat before they could all resume their positions and get under way. Ia pulled the big SUV out ahead of everyone since only Haku knew where they were going, and she spent the rest of the ride giving Ia directions on where and when to turn. When they finally pulled onto the private lot and into a huge driveway they all stopped and got out. Haku waited for her girlfriends to help her, though her head was finally beginning to clear.

"Wow! Haku! What a mansion! It's huge!" Meiko exclaimed at her.

"This is the Yowane Estate. It's been in my family for generations, but I haven't been here since I started high school."

"Why not?" Ia asked curiously as they made their way up the huge front steps onto the massive porch.

"Because I wanted to go to school in the inner city so my parents bought a little house for me to stay in. I haven't been back here in… like six years." She reached out to try the curved intricately carved brass handles expecting to have to force the door, but the instant her hand touched the cool metal a light emitted from a sensor above the door that had been recessed in the intricate wood carving of the frame to blend it in. A blue scan line flickered briefly over Haku's face, vanished, then a panel beside the door slid open to reveal a touch plate with a highlighted hand print on it to indicate where to place her hand. She complied, shifting her weight against Luka to get her correct hand in place. There was a brief beep and the door unlocked with a click. They all blinked at her curiously and she shrugged. "I don't remember that, my parents must have added some security features after I left."

They all followed her into the massive entry hall with a grand staircase before them and doorways off to either side. The lights in the foyer came on and a neutral slightly effeminate voice echoed throughout the hall seemingly from nowhere. "Good evening Yowane Haku-sama. Your visual parameters have changed, I shall update my database to match your fingerprints. The last time you returned was before I was brought online more than six years ago. Welcome home."

Every eye turned to stare at her incredulously and Haku knew her own eyes were just as round as theirs were. "New features indeed…" she murmured.


	33. Vocaloid Academy Chapter 33

"What is the matter, Yowane-sama? Trouble sleeping?" The smooth slightly effeminate voice still gave Haku a mild start whenever it seemed to come out of nowhere, for all that she had begun getting used to it over the past several days since her homecoming. It wasn't that Vy was any real problem or invasive or anything, just that she wasn't used to having another presence constantly around her even when she was alone. Well, except for her girlfriends minds inside her own head when they were linked anyway, but even that was shut off sometimes, as it was now with Luka and Miku both asleep in the massive king sized luxurious bed in the equally gargantuan bedroom they had taken over for themselves. They'd been roughing it for nearly a month now being on the run from the government and still had to fight little ridiculous inconveniences such as only having one set of clothing to wear but now they had a roof over their heads, a place to be that was safe, and a reliable way to get food, so the major problems had been solved, or at least patched over. All they had to do was have Vy access the internet on their behalf to put in an order at a store that delivered and groceries and hygiene necessities and any number of other things just showed up in a truck. They could literally hide here forever… except of course that that wouldn't make the problem go away. Maybe she could order some clothes…? Or they could risk going shopping once.

"I'm used to waking up early, Vy." In actuality she'd been woken up by the pain lancing through her head again, had come awake to the red letters in her vision warning of a critical system incompatibility, but Haku didn't want to tell the mansion's artificial intelligence that. Her mansion now, she supposed. What an oddly bewildering thought. She didn't know why it should be; for all that her parents were apparently set on causing problems on a world scale her family was well off, had always been well off, and she herself now had possession of a couple of extremely expensive vehicles. But… there was just something about having a massive and beautiful mansion that left her a little mind boggled.

"I have noticed this in you, Yowane-sama. In the past five days you have awoken at an average time of five forty-three each morning. However the current time is four fifty-one, much earlier than your average. Is there something troubling you perhaps? Might I do something to ease your sleeplessness? Some soothing music, perhaps?"

Haku found herself wryly amused at the thought of an AI playing music for a sonic-based cyborg capable producing music with her very body. "No thank you, Vy." She said as she took a look around at the balcony she'd stepped out onto from their bedroom a moment before. It had a gorgeous vista of the surrounding hillside and the city scape far below that was partially obscured by the trees of hilly foreground. She'd brought a couple of chairs up here she'd found in a den the other day that looked like they could survive outside weather when she'd discovered this spot and had come to enjoy sitting out here. This particular balcony had not been a frequent spot for her as a child but now she found it relaxing. The glow of predawn put enough light in the sky to see by but not enough to diminish the stars or the twinkling lights of the city below, and she took a seat and just gazed at the beautiful scenery. The air was chilly and the winter was finally beginning to relent but hadn't yet loosed it's frigid grip on the weather, and it made her bare skin cold within moments, but she hadn't wanted to dirty her only clothes yet so she hadn't put them on. There was no one to see her anyway, and she didn't mind the cold.

"Vy," Haku said as she sat there admiring the view. "How self aware are you?"

"I am fully aware of everything in the house and the lab, Yowane-sama." Came the even reply.

"No not of the premises, of you yourself. How far does your AI extend?" Haku asked curiously.

"My programming includes subroutines for serving the Yowane family, for security measures and protocols, and for interactive voice command. I am aware of anything with regard to those functions."

"Do you have feelings?" Haku wanted to know.

"An emotional program was created for me by your mother Yowane-sama, however it was never finished and was not implemented." Haku thought about that for a moment. Vy seemed reasonably well designed for an AI and had the illusion of self awareness yet it only went so far as the programming. Unlike a Vocaloid Vy had no biological brain to draw on, and it seemed her parents hadn't achieved true technological sentience, just mimicked it. She pondered that idly for awhile, the subject giving her mind something to chew on that didn't involve the seriousness of life. She didn't have long to think on it though as she abruptly felt the wireless signal of her girlfriend's reaching out for her. She accepted the connection, both of the other two girl's minds blooming into existence in the back of her own even as Vy spoke again, "I believe Hatsune-sama and Megurine-sama have awoken."

"Thank you Vy." She murmured as the door to the balcony slid open behind her.

"Haku-chin?" Came Luka's crystalline voice, then she felt her girlfriend shiver from the cold. "What are you doing out here? It's still early."

"I couldn't sleep, and it's pretty out here." She replied in a subdued voice, almost as though to avoid waking up the slumbering world below.

Luka stood there a moment then ducked back inside and a moment later she came back with Miku in tow. The light blue haired girl had raked her fingers through her hair hastily and wrapped her naked frame in a thick blanket. She scooted a second chair to right up against Haku's own so she could lean against her. Haku put an arm around her and Miku leaned in for the cuddle letting out the most adorable little yawn. Luka pulled the remaining chair up to Miku's other side and sat down, pulling another blanket up to cover all three of them. Miku burrowed in so she had equal contact with both of the other girls then looked up. "What's the matter Haku-chin?"

"What makes you think something's the matter?" Haku asked evasively.

"Because it's five in the morning and you're out here in the cold brooding." Miku giggled sleepily.

Haku rolled her eyes and Luka nudged the petite girl. "Maybe it's just a really nice brooding spot?" The pink haired beauty suggested.

Miku made a little 'o' with her mouth at that. "There are spots that are better for brooding?" She asked as though it were some big revelation, then looked up at Haku. "What makes a good brooding spot?"

"Anywhere that annoying girlfriends won't barge in on while you're thinking." Haku said dryly.

"Well! Good thing you don't have annoying girlfriends!" Miku giggled. Haku reached up to pinch her cheek. "Ow! Hey!"

"You're not out here thinking about your death again are you?" Luka asked quietly.

"I think…" Haku said slowly, shifting her gaze back out to the view so she didn't have to look them in the eye. "That my existence complicates matters immensely for the Vocaloids as a whole, and for you both in specific. I can't help but wonder… if I wasn't here…" she trailed off.

"If you weren't here, we'd be dead." Luka said pointedly. "Or captured by the government."

"You've been at the heart of everything we've accomplished, Haku-chin. You're death doesn't solve anything, you're living does." Miku said in a quiet yet fervent tone.

"You haven't just saved our lives Haku-chin, you've enriched our very existence just by being with us." Luka said, and Haku turned her head back to stare at them. She had no words, could only look on at the two beautiful girls who so held her heart. Luka sighed and looked to the petite girl. "She's not buying it Miku-chin. What do we do?"

Miku tilted her head. "A song?" She suggested. "Sometimes music helps where words fail."

Luka nodded thoughtfully and Haku could feel their minds turning in the back of her own in a contemplative way. She had no doubts about their sincerity, no doubts about their love, but the reality she saw was different than they were painting. Shifting her gaze back out to the hillside she whispered quietly, "Can I tell you something?"

"Anything." Came the crystal reply.

"I still can't believe I'm here." She said. She felt their eyes on her, could see herself through their eyes, like looking out from a mirror. "I don't mean physically out here on this balcony, though that's incredible enough on it's own really. I mean here in life, with you, together. You're both so extremely beautiful, so poised and graceful, so every inch the gorgeous singing stars you are, that sometimes it's still hard for me to believe that I'm really your girlfriend. Like I can't even wrap my head around it at times, and I occasionally find it hard to see you as anything other than amazingly beautiful world famous idols. Next to that… next to that… what am I? What could someone like me possibly be beside two amazing radiant creatures such as yourselves?" She dropped her head trying not to blush.

They were silent for a very long minute or two before Miku spoke up, her green eyes going out to the slowly lightening sky as Haku's had. "Sometimes you make me feel stupid." She said in her blunt way. Haku's head came up in surprise and Luka winced but Miku went on. "Not like, that's not… ugh. I mean like, you're brilliant, Haku-chin. Like even my dad said he's never seen anyone who could reason things out like you, and he's a doctor and a cyberneticist besides. You're absolutely beautiful and elegant and exotic and the fact that you seem to flat refuse to believe it annoys the ever loving bajeezus out of me, but to top it off you've got brains too. And I don't just mean you're okay looking and you're kinda smart, I'm talking you're drop dead gorgeous and your intelligence was praised by a world class scientist! And as if that wasn't enough you come from money!" She gestured wildly around at the hilltop mansion they were in, coming dangerously close to disturbing the blankets shielding their naked bodies from the frigid morning air. "How do you not realize that you're like literally the very exact definition of most people's ideal mate?!"

"It's that why you love me?" Haku asked dryly. "Because I'm smart, pretty, and come from money?"

"No! Haku-chin, please!" Miku jabbed her in the side through her blanket with a finger.

"Ow!" Haku yelped, rubbing at her side.

"We come from money too Haku-chin, that doesn't matter." Luka put in. "The point is that you undervalue yourself."

"You're so smart it makes me feel dumb." Miku told her. "There are times when there's something confusing going on and you see right through it, like a laser zapping right through to the core of the issue. Bazaaaaap!" She aimed her hand like a finger gun. "Then you come up with all these answers about what's going on and why, and you come up with ways to handle whatever it is." Her voice dropped in embarrassment, got quieter, but she didn't stop. "But one reason I love you is because you don't like totally lord your brain over us. You explain things, you make things better."

Haku shook her head. "Luka-chin is the one who makes things better, so strong and confident and decisive."

"I can only do that because of you Haku-chin." Luka said matching the quiet tone. "Miku-chin is right, you're incredibly brilliant, but where most brilliant people are self absorbed and put others down by flaunting their intelligence, you instead explain things and try to bring us up to your level. Sometimes you just see things that are so painfully clear to you and we feel stupid because we can see how easily you understand and we know you think it should be obvious to us too, but you never lose your patience with us, you never call us down for it. That right there is why we love you, because that's one example of how genuinely caring a person you are, one example of how you enrich our lives."

Haku blushed furiously and turned her head away. "I swear if I couldn't feel your honesty through the link between us I'd call you both liars for such brilliant flattery…" she murmured. The glowing golden pulse she'd come to understand was their love for her burned brighter down that connection and abruptly she wanted to throw herself at them, wanted to show them how much she loved them too. She knew they could feel the heat rising from her, could feel them feeling it from her… then abruptly she sat up straighter in her chair. They blinked in surprise at her but she tilted her head up to address the air. "Vy?"

"Yes Yowane-sama?" Came the even response.

"Did you say earlier there's a lab here? In the house?"

"Yes Yowane-sama."

"Where?" Haku asked.

"Beneath the basement. You're parents had it built five years three months eleven days ago shortly before I was brought online."

"Where is the entrance?"

"Beside the garage port, there is a false wall beside a subterranean shaft where a staircase descends beside the hidden vehicle access that leads from outside."

Haku detangled herself from the blankets and got up, then let off a shiver as the cold winter morning air washed over bare body once more. Miku giggled up at her and Luka covered a smile. "Cold out here, ne?"

"Honestly Haku-chin I don't see how you enjoy the chilly weather." Miku added. Haku narrowed her eyes then abruptly reached down and snagged the blankets and yanked. Both of her girlfriends let out quite satisfactory shrieks, practical jumping straight up off their chairs. "Haku-chin! What are you-?!"

"Come on, let's go see this lab, I have a feeling…" she trailed off then headed inside.

"Wait, we need to get dressed!" Luka called after her.

"No, come on!" Haku said urgently. The other two girls stopped to at least rewrap their nakedness in blankets again then hurried to catch up with one for her as they left the huge bedroom together.

"What's the rush?" Miku asked a little annoyed. "It's not like this lab is going anywhere."

"I just want to see it right now." Haku said distractedly as she led them through the vaulted hallways to the main staircase to the ground floor.

"But I'm naked!" Miku complained loudly.

"There's no one to see." Haku turned them toward the garage, muscle memory from when she was a teenager guiding her feet as much as conscious thought.

"Except Meiko and Ia!" The petite girl replied.

"You have a blanket." Luka said then smiled when Miku let out a whine.

They reached the garage port at a turn in the hallway and Haku stopped short blinking in confusion. The other two had to take a sharp step to avoid waking in to her. "What's wrong?" Miku wanted to know, peering at the door that led down a short access hallway to the garage.

"This… didn't used to be like this." She gestured at the flat wall that ran away from the door down the way the corridor turned. "There used to be a storage room here behind the garage."

"That storage room was removed for stairway entrance to the lab." Came Vy's voice from around them.

"This is the hidden entrance?" Haku asked.

"Yes Yowane-sama."

Haku reached out to put a hand on the wall, then jerked her hand back in surprise, the sudden motion making the blanket the other two had draped around her fall partially away. Luka caught it and tugged it back into place for her. "What is it?"

"Nanites…?" Haku breathed. They stared at her then looked at the wall. They'd felt it through her touch down the link of course but they reached out to feel for themselves. Three hands touched the wall and three pairs of eyes widened.

"I can… feel them…" Miku muttered. "Zillions of them like a huge wall of ants or something, but…"

"Like if an entire ant colony all held still at once." Luka finished for her and Miku nodded.

"How are they looking like the wall…?" Haku mused. "There's no wall here, it's solid nanites." She pushed on it experimentally but it didn't budge. "Unless... " She narrowed her eyes. "Unless it's not completely solid nanites…"

"It can't be!" Miku exclaimed. "Nanites are like super teeny tiny right?! Like totally invisible to the naked eye cuz they're tiny enough to enter living cells right?! So how can we even see them like this? This can't be a wall of just nanites."

Haku turned and took Miku's hand, pulling it away from the wall and holding it up to her face. "What do you see here Miku-chin?" She asked patiently.

Luka giggled, "Yowane-sensei has called class to session."

"Ehm. My hand…?" Miku said doubtful.

Haku pushed Miku's hand closer toward her green eyes. "Now what do you see?"

"My… hand?" Miku was confused.

Haku pushed it closer. "Now?"

"Well I'm starting to see my fingerprints."

Haku pulled on her girlfriend's hand, extending Miku's arm out as far as it would go. "Now can you see any fine detail?" When Miku shook her head Haku let go of Miku's hand and gestured at the wall. "Your bare eye can't see it unaided but if you got a microscope powerful enough to aid your eye in doing exactly what we just did with your hand you could eventually see the individual nanites. With enough of them massed up like this the effect is like all the cells in your hand making you see just a hand."

"You went through medical school Miku-chin, how do you not know this?" Luka said teasingly still smiling.

"Of Course I know that!" Miku said emphatically. "What I meant was like, how many must there be to make up a wall like this? Nanites are small enough to enter living cells, and an average person has something like forty trillion cells in their body, how many does that mean we even have, let alone this wall?"

"My father's notes on my construction said I started with twenty trillion nanites." Haku replied, and the other two girl's eyes widened. She gestured at the wall. "The human body is meters thick in size and shape though. This wall however might be no thicker in depth than a single nanite. Their entire programmed purpose is to look like a wall and cover a doorway. What I want to know is, how are they taking on the visual appearance of the wall?" She reached her hand back out to touch the nanite barrier again. It was a construct built in the Yowane mansion by Yowane scientists. She should have control of this. She let her own cybernetic systems sort of reach out, her wireless receiver sending a signal, like an authentication, and the wall responded. At first it seemed to ripple all across the surface, changing from the color and texture of the wall into a smooth metallic flat plane the size of a door, then it parted like a curtain and seemed to melt away to reveal the hidden stairway leading down.

"Whoa!" Miku exclaimed. "That's super spoopy!" Haku and Luka looked at her and she blinked at them. "What?!"

Haku shook her head and stepped toward the stairs. "Nothing."

"What?!" Miku called after her more emphatically.

Luka had one of her small private smiles on her lips as she leaned down to give Miku a quick little kiss. "Don't ever change Miku-chin."

The way down the stairs was lit with LED strips of pale blue that took them deeper than the basement levels of the the mansion before letting them out into a lab room that was twin to the one she'd been in before beneath the the car warehouse except that this one had only one door out in the opposite wall from the stairwell. A main network terminal sat against the wall to their right and several exam tables with diagnostic terminals along the wall to their left. Haku led them across the main room to the door opposite them and down the hallway. A couple of doors branched of this hall, one to the right had a massive room that looked like a mechanic's dream garage except that it didn't have a single vehicle in it, but the tools and equipment were all there. Across from that was another workshop type room but this one contained electrical equipment everywhere from cables and wiring to circuit boards to soldering stations. Further down from those rooms were a couple of individual diagnostic rooms with medical exam tables and equipment which gave Haku the creepy feeling of being a cyborg operating room, and at the far end where the hallway stopped was a final room that looked to be a storage room similar to the two the Hatsune's had under the Vocaloid Compound for keeping spare parts and ordinance and the like, but as with the mechanic room it was mostly empty. The place was deserted, more proof that her parents had no intention of returning here any time soon, but the facilities were all intact and she led them back to the main room.

"What is it with genius scientists and creepy hidden labs." Miku said rhetorically while rubbing at one arm uncomfortably.

"Must be some kind of requirement to stay in the club." Luka surmised and Miku giggled.

Haku stepped up to the main network terminal and woke it up, the screen coming up to a password lock. "I wish I'd known this was down here when I rewrote Meiko and Ia's security protocols that first night." Haku muttered absently as she tried a few passwords from various computers she'd hacked from her parents in the past.

"The mobile one in the Behemoth worked just fine." Miku said.

"The Behemoth?" Luka said flatly. "Is that really-?"

"What I named it!" Miku confirmed cheerfully.

None of the passwords she'd tried seemed to match so in the end she had to hack it, connecting with her cybermind and running her code breaking program as she'd done before. She watched the mosaic cube rotate in her 3D vision and when the password crack finished she blinked at it in surprise. 'Haku733' flashed at her briefly before the terminal logged in. Why would they have used her name for a password so long ago…? It made no sense, they'd never been around. She wasn't sure what to think of that, so she dismissed that thought for the moment and turned back to her girlfriends. With the system logged in and her mind connected to it and theirs there was no need to go through the network computer manually. She simply did as she'd done before with other computers and pulled the documents up in her visual overlay to look at since it was so much faster, the speed of thought. She mentally flicked them out into a virtual work space so all three of them could see at the same time as she went through therm, thinking to the other two across their connection now since that would be communication as fast as the files were flying.

" _A lot of these are things I've seen before_ ," she thought at them. " _Equations, algorithms, theoretical notes_ …"

" _What do they just copy everything at each lab_?" Came a thought from Luka.

" _Well it would make sense to take your files and notes with you when you move and keep working from there, so basically each time I've found a set of files it it contains some similar copies, almost like going back in time in versions_."

" _Then you've already read all of these since they're old_?" Miku guessed as she watched the files flying by.

" _Well yes and no. I haven't had the chance to read them all word for word, I mostly just skim file names and headings to see what's in them when I'm looking for answers to something. Like take this one for example._ " She stopped the flow of documents at random and and opened up the one she was on, glancing at the heading in slight amusement. " _How topical. If I'd been looking for something on nanites I could have seen this one and pulled it up to read._ " She looked over the document seeming to their eyes to float in the air between them and blinked as a passage caught her eye. " _Biomimetic fluid manipulation… nanite carbon shaping…?_ "

" _What does that mean? Is it important_?" Miku sent.

" _It's cybernetics Miku-chin, it's all important_." Luka responded wryly.

Haku read through the document, her eyes going wide as pieces of the puzzle seemed to shift in her mind, dots connecting like never before. " _The biomimetic fluid out parents developed isn't liquid based at all, it's carbon based suspended in a nutrient solution to give it a biological property similar to blood_."

" _What does that mean? That sounds like nonsense to me._ " Luka thought.

" _It's cybernetics Luka-chin, none of it's nonsense_." Miku giggled out loud along with the thought. Luka stuck her tongue out in reply.

" _Look here_." Haku drew their attention to a section of the document that described the nutrient solution. " _It's a synthetic sort of bio gel that has the same consistency as blood. So when it circulates through our bodies it's literally carrying our nanites around through our veins. It does all the same things as blood but it also has trillions of the nanites and trillions of carbon particles._ "

" _Isn't carbon poisonous to the human body_?" Luka asked.

" _That's carbon monoxide, and only if too much is breathed_." Miku answered her.

" _Carbon by itself is just an element and one of the most common on Earth as well as in our bodies_." Haku thought to them. " _It's also extremely malleable under the right circumstances and can be used for a lot of different things… which makes me wonder_ …" She flicked through the document some more looking through the entries.

" _Malleable how?_ " Came a thought from Miku.

Everything seemed to be flying through Haku's mind as she fit the pieces together. " _Carbon… malleable shaping… element abundance… nutrient suspension… nanite manipulation… wall surface… hidden entrance… hair color… cell manipulation…_ "

" _Haku-chin…_?"

Shifting her body slightly she let the blanket slip from her shoulders and turned to stare wide eyed at her girlfriends. " _They can spread out like a wall… or a curtain… or…?"_ They blinked at her and Haku felt deep within herself, tried to feel for the trillions of nanites that circulated through her body. When she'd changed her hair color for the first time (on purpose anyway) she hadn't consciously thought of the tiny machines, just what she needed them to do. She couldn't feel them physically inside her any more than she could feel the individual cells within her body, but she could almost get a sense of them deep down. She exerted her will, flexed her conscious thought… and her skin began to ripple. No, not her shin, it was the biomimetic fluid she felt coating her body, brought forth from inside her by the trillions of tiny nanites manipulating the carbon based nutrient suspension. Haku heard her girlfriends gasp in astonishment, saw herself through their eyes seeming to suddenly turn metallic in color all over as though she'd been dipped in quicksilver.

"Haku-chin!" Luka had a hand to her mouth in shock. "What is this?!"

"What's going on?!" Miku shouted.

"You don't have to shout, I can hear you just fine." Haku told them. She let the carbon nanite skin seem to flex and ripple across her body and they gasped again.

"Are you okay?!" Miku shouted again anyway, but it was a little quieter.

"It's my nanites and biomimetic fluid coating me." She told them with a smile getting giddy inside with her discovery of the new trick.

"From inside your body?!" Miku exclaimed.

"How are you doing this?!" Luka gasped.

"The same way I changed my hair color before." She told them with a little giggle. "The nanites can enter and alter living cells, why not their own fluid? The hidden wall gave me the idea. If they can spread out outside of a host to mimic a wall, why not… say… a dress?" She shifted her thought slightly at the nanites and they rippled across her skin again, condensing so they weren't covering her arms or legs, forming into a casual silvery dress. "A white dress?" It strained a snow white with the same sort of ink blot effect her hair had when it changed. Her girlfriend's eyes widened even further. "A blue dress?" It stained blue.

"A pink dress with white hearts?" Luka suggested, and Haku smiled and the blue stained to pink and white splotches formed all over it and shaped into hearts.

"A silver and blue dress with stars and moons?!" Miku exclaimed.

Haku giggled and gestured to Miku. "You try it."

Miku made a face. "How?'

"The same way as the hair. Focus on your body, on the need." The petite girl scrunched up her face and concentrated. "Don't think too hard, we're creatures of instinct and emotion. It's up up our cybernetic systems to interpret our biological brain's will. Let the Vocaloid Chip do the work." It took her another few moments of gentle urging but a moment later Miku dropped her blanket and a beautiful short cheongsam just like she'd described seemed to flood over her nakedness. She giggled and whirled around trying to admire herself.

Luka just shook her head. "This is truly amazing Haku-chin. Every time I think you've come up with the most astonishing thing ever you take another step." Haku blushed at the praise and watched as the pink haired beauty concentrated as they had before, dropping her blanket to cover her own bare skin with a light casual pale pink sundress. She twisted this way and that to look herself over then glanced up. "You're right, it's really similar to the hair trick."

Miku lifted the hem of her elaborate cheongsam and rolled it in her fingers. "It feels really like silk, or super silky anyway. How do the nanites actually do this? I just imagined what I wanted."

Haku gestured and a 3D visual rendering of a nanite (a simplistic cartoonish one) popped up in their virtual workspace surrounded by a bubble. "The nanites float around in the biomimetic fluid, and the fluid itself is a carbon based nutrient suspension." The nanite disappeared to show the bubble alone and she made it different shades of yellow and gray to illustrate that, then she filled it with a bunch of smaller versions of the nanite she'd made. "They can enter living cells and alter them, which is how they maintain our bodies, and also how we got them to change our hair color, but if they can do that with living cells I didn't see why they couldn't with the biomimetic fluid. They just manipulate it the same way." Several of the 3D renderings of the tiny robots seemed to scoop up of the grey bits of of the bubble they were floating in then skittered out of the bubble and began spreading their armfuls out away from it like smoothing out dough. "It's how they did the wall upstairs, and how they're making us look like we're wearing dresses. They just made it into the color and consistency of the fabric we wanted and held it in place." The images in the air manipulated the bits of grey substance they'd brought until it was smoothed out flat and changed the color to red, then each one held on to edges of the others' parts to make a mesh.

"That is that coolest thing!" Miku said having watched in rapt attention the entire time. "So they can make it look like anything?! Make us look like we're wearing anything we want?!"

"Well it certainly solves our immediate clothing problem." Luka mused thoughtfully, tapping on her chin. "But does it only work with clothing, or can they mimic other things?"

"I don't see why they couldn't basically mimic anything." Haku said, allowing a metallic band to form around her neck like a necklace and turning it to a sparkling silver color.

Miku giggled at that and gave herself a gold bracelet, but Luka shook her head. "I was thinking something more… practical. More on helping us solve some of our current problems."

"What do you mean?" Miku asked her and Haku tilted her head curiously.

"I mean…" Luka said slowly with that tone she used when she'd already thought things through but was drawing it out. "Like… a disguise?" She looked at Haku intently for a moment then Luka's entire face coated with the liquid metal and when the shapes and colors resolved Haku found herself looking… at herself. She blinked. Miku gasped. Luka grinned at her with Haku's own face.

"How did you-?!" Miku exclaimed but cut off. She knew how, Haku had just shown them.

"Like you said about the wall Haku-chin; no more than a nanite thick." Luka giggled at herself.

Haku reached a hand up to gently brush the taller girl's arm. "That's incredible, Luka-chin. Really, an exceedingly clever dea. How do you think it can help us with our current dilemmas though?"

Luka let her 'Haku mask' fade away, the nanites receding back into her body, and she gestured toward the door to the lab. "Let's talk about it over breakfast?"

Miku threw a hand up into the air, "I want pancakes!"

Luka eyed her. "Do we have pancakes?" The petite girl shrugged and turned to rush toward the door leaving the two taller girls to trail after her. Luka glanced at Haku. "Do we have pancakes?"

"I think there's some powder mix…?" Haku replied. They followed the excitable light blue haired girl back upstairs to the ground floor and through the vaulted hallways leading toward the back of the mansion where the massive kitchen was. Miku immediately blitzed for the walk in pantry and they heard rustling around before she reemerged with an arm load of stuff. She began setting things down on the counter and the other two stared at her.

"You're going to use all of that?" Luka asked doubtfully.

Miku blinked at her. "What? Me?"

"Well who did you think was going to cook?" Luka replied. "None of us really have ever done much beyond the basic heating up of things, and we don't exactly have a chef on staff do we?" She had a point, they were famous idols, they didn't really have to do any of that for themselves. They always just bought food whenever and wherever they were.

The pitious crestfallen look that came over Miku's face was so heartbreaking the other two sighed and gave in. Seeming like a good opportunity to capture memories Haku started a video recording in her mind as they both moved around to either side of the shorter girl. Luka leaned over to put a little kiss on her cheek and Haku reached out for the bag of powder mix to look at the directions on the label. "It's just pancakes. How hard could it be?"

It turned out however that all of the genius intellect, aptitude for science, medicine, mechanics, art, music, and cybernetics between the three of them did not apparently any one of them a chef make. Miku started them off by dipping a measuring cup into the powder mix, dumping that into a mixing bowl, then just stuck the bowl under the faucet to run some water in it. Haku, looking over all the various things Miku had set out on that counter, glanced back around at her. "Uh, Miku-chin, I think you need to measure the water too."

Miku blinked up at her. "What? Really?" She looked at the package again then shrugged. "We probably just need to offset the water with other things to balance it." She leaned over and snatched up a banana out of a fruit bowl that Ia had set out the other day and began peeling it.

"Banana pancakes?" Luka asked curiously.

"Why not? We have strawberry crepes all the time." She replied as she began pulling the banana apart with her fingers and dropping it into the bowl.

"Miku-chin I don't think that's the same-" Haku began as a chorus of water plonks was heard as banana pieces hit the bowl. Then Miku added some cocoa powder and almonds. It all sounded good in theory but… the mixture was so watery and mushy as Miku added things to it that Haku winced.

Luka leaned up to retrieve a frying pan from a peg on a wall and placed it on the stove and turned the heat on and Miku unceremoniously dumped an indeterminable amount of the mixture into the pan, and they all leaned over to stare at it. After a long few moments the watery mess began to boil, and they looked up at each other. "Isn't it supposed to… thicken…?" Luka asked.

"I think there's too much water." Haku said dubiously.

"But I added banana pieces!" Miku objected wide eyed.

"Is that what I smell burning?" Luka asked.

"How does water burn?!" Miku shouted, and at that moment a bit of cocoa banana water boiled over the edge of the frying pan, hit the burner, and sent up a brief gout of flame. They all shrieked and flinched away and Luka grabbed the frying pan handle and yanked it off the burner as Haku switched the stove off. They stared at each other blankly for a second and then Miku took the pan and dumped it in the sink, making a giant mess as cocoa powder, almonds, banana mash and burned lumps of pancake mix smeared everywhere, and the bottom of the pan was blackened and didn't look much better.

"Miku-chin… did you… stir that at all?" Haku asked.

"Stir?" Miku batted her big green eyes in confusion and the other two heaved huge sighs.

"You made a mess out of Haku-chin's sink." Luka told her.

"You ruined her pan!" Miku pointed at the blackened husk.

"Let's just... try again, ne?" Haku said quietly, and they glanced at her and nodded.

So Haku got out a measuring cup and read the amounts on the package and put the right portions of powder mix and water into a clean bowl and handed it to Miku with a big spoon to stir while Luka got down a clean frying pan. Miku stirred it up until it made a batter and let out a little squeak of surprise. "This looks way better!" She set the bowl down on the counter and proceeded to add the cocoa powder, almonds, and pieces of banana to it then carried it over to upend on the pan Luka was setting on a burner. It seemed much thicker coming out than it had when Miku had been mixing it but Luka flipped the dial over anyway and they waited. Nothing seemed to happen for a long time then abruptly they caught the smell of smoke.

"What-?" Luka started to say then blinked and then stared at the thing as the surface of their batter started to bubble.

"I think you're supposed to flip it over." Haku said.

"OH! DUH!" Miku reached for a utensil container and pulled out a spatula, stuck it into the frying pan, slid it in and twisted her wrist. There was a crunch of burnt charring as she levered the spatula sideways but the pancake was so stuck to the pan and Miku's arm wasn't braced that when she twisted her wrist the entire frying pan slid off the burner all together and they all screamed again as they jumped back out of the way. The pan hit the floor with a clatter so loud they all shrieked again and danced a few steps even further back as partially cooked batter sprayed everywhere.

"What's all the noise about?" Meiko's voice from the doorway to the kitchen brought the three idol's heads up in surprise. The two now ex government women were standing in the doorway with bleary looks in their eyes wearing bathrobes found in a linen closet the first night they'd been here. Meiko's short brown hair was a frizzy mess but Ia had clearly run a brush through her pale curls hastily when they'd come to investigate the commotion. Haku registered what time it actually was as she glanced out the window to see that it still wasn't fully light out yet.

"Oh! We're sorry, did we wake you?" Luka asked conscientiously. "That wasn't very courteous of us."

"No it's alright." Ia said with a small smile as she took in the wreck they had already made of the kitchen. She'd been so much more relaxed then they'd ever known her to be since Haku had freed them from the government, and it was heartwarming to see her so at ease. "Is everything all right in here? Can we help with anything?"

Haku bent to retrieve the frying pan from the floor, lifting the still hot thing carefully by the handle and wincing at the mess. "We were… trying to make breakfast…" She explained.

"Maybe we should splurge on ordering something after all. Pancakes seem to beyond us." Luka said with a grimace.

"Oh, no not at all. I could help, if you don't mind…?" Ia said by way of offer.

Miku brightened up immediately. "You can cook Ia-chan?!"

Meiko just rolled her eyes then let out a yawn. "Oh please, Ia-tan is like a master chef."

Ia blushed at the lofty praise and shook her head. "I'm not, but I used to cook for myself a lot, before… uhm…" she trailed off at that but they all understood. Before Sarge took away her life, in every sense of the word.

The mood in the room grew tense for a minute but Miku turned to get another clean frying pan and held it up. "Will you… teach me to make banana pancakes, Ia-chan?" She batted her big beautiful green eyes and the tension drained out of the air as Ia smiled at her, stepping over the mess as much as she could to reach the stove and accept the pan from Miku

"Of course I will. And perhaps later you could teach me a dance step or two."

"You want to learn to dance?" Luka asked curiously.

Miku nodded vigorously as Ia set the pan on the stove. "We can totally teach you how to dance! We were going to do a song for Haku-chin anyway after breakfast!"

"I…" Ia paused a minute in an introspective way. "I want to learn more about… about myself, about what I am now. You all seem… so regal, I guess. So self possessed, so sure of yourselves so much of the time. I've thought so since that first day in the mall when I was supposed to be observing you undercover, and I've only ever thought so more and more each time I saw you." Her tone was soft like she was talking more to herself than to them, but she seemed to realize she'd been musing aloud and blushed furiously. "Oh! Sorry, that's…"

Luka put a hand on her arm comfortingly. "It's alright to want to grow, Ia-chan. We're all doing our best in extremely difficult circumstances. We're not as serene as we might seem, but we do try."

"Not even Haku-chan?" Ia asked, and Haku blinked.

"Ha? No, I just… try not to let people see it, but inside I'm always feeling like I'm about to melt down or something." She glanced up at her girlfriends and smiled. "It was lucky for me I met two wonderful angels who helped me to discover myself. You have to lean on those who care for you, and you have to let them lean on you."

Abruptly Meiko flung the fridge open and took out some butter and thrust it out to Ia. "For the pan." She murmured, and Ia nodded as she accepted it. Their fingers brushed, their eyes connected, they paused staring at each other, then they cast their gazes away at almost the same moment. Meiko leaned down to the floor and began picking up bits of burnt pancake big enough to be grabbed with her fingers. "I'm not much of a cook myself, but… I can help… clean up maybe…"

It was so odd to see Meiko out of sorts, and Haku wondered about it. In terms of sheer force of personality she regarded the short haired girl as nearly a match for Luka, so seeing her so off put was strange. She went and retrieved a couple of hand towels from a cupboard then knelt down to help pick up bits of gunk while the others began making pancakes. "Are you alright, Meiko-chan?" Haku asked quietly when their cleaning had taken them a little ways away from the others.

Meiko was silent for a time, focusing on the floor and the towel in her hand a she wiped up batter so hard it seemed she was angry at it, but when she finally answered it was with a question rather than a statement. "Can I ask you… something personal, Haku-chan?" When she got a nod in reply Meiko stopped the rag for a moment but didn't look up. "When you… got together… with your girlfriends… how did you… I mean, how did you know…? That they were… I mean that they would… I mean..." She really was frustrated, letting out a sigh of annoyance at herself, her cheeks coloring faintly. "How did you know?" She finally said in a general way.

Haku glanced up at her lovers watching the cooking intently from either side of Ia; they seemed engrossed in what they were doing, the knot of sensations from each of them in the back of Haku's mind saying they were completely distracted. Miku's wide eyed genuine face, her eagerness, her zest, her energy, her boundless spirit. Luka's grace, her composure, her passion, her endless will. Had one or the other of them not existed Haku knew she would still have fallen for the other, but in the end she'd been blessed with both, and she realized in a moment of self reflection brought on by Meiko's question that she still didn't feel deserving of either. But they loved her, she knew they did, she could feel it from them every time they linked. Haku turned her gaze back to Meiko and smiled faintly. "I didn't know. In the end, all I could do was tell them how I felt, and let them decide. It has to be a two way street. But if you mean, how did I know I love them…?" She looked up at her girlfriends again, and whispered wistfully, "I figured it out somewhere between never being able to stop thinking about them and realizing I couldn't live without them."

Meiko stared at her for a long moment then abruptly burst out laughing, the sound so loud that Haku blushed as the others turned their heads in surprise. "That is the corniest thing I've ever heard in my life!" The short haired girl snickered, making Haku flush harder. "Oh it's sweet, sickeningly so really, but my god. Have you tried telling them that?!" She laughed harder and Haku bent back to her clean up task, trying not to feel like every eye was on her. Kneeling there on the floor of her own house being laughed at for the love she felt for her girlfriends… made her bristle inside, though after months of use she was far too practiced at her outer layer of calm to let it show. By the looks on Miku and Luka's faces however they could definitely feel the prickliness coming from her in their heads.

By the time the cleaning up was done and the floor and sink had been put back to rights Ia had relinquished the stove and was now instructing rather than demonstrating. Miku had the spatula and was flipping pancakes over while Luka mixed the batter, but both were still casting concerned glances in Haku's direction every now and then. With little else to do for her part Haku thought that some tea might go well with their breakfast and put some water on to heat in an electric kettle, then got out a teapot and a cup for each of them. Once the cooking was finished they moved the stacks of banana pancakes they'd made and the tea into the dining room and Meiko and Ia excused themselves to go change. As soon as they were out of earshot Luka pulled a chair at the head of the table out and looked to Haku, patting the seat cushion.

"Sit down and tell us what happened, Haku-chin." Her crystalline voice was both inviting and concerned.

Haku eyed the seat at the head of the table dubiously. "You're more of the head of us than I am, you should have that seat."

"There is no 'head of us,' and it's your house." Luka returned in a gentle yet admonitory way.

"Then I want it to be 'our' house." She told them, and they blinked at her.

"But it's your family's home from like forever ago." Miku objected.

"When people get married, don't they share everything?" Haku asked quietly, then had to suppress a giggle when their eyes widened. She took the chair then patted the table in front of the chairs beside her. They sat and she took up their hands in either of hers. "Meiko-chan laughed at me because she asked me how I'd known it when I figured out I was in love with you both. I didn't know what to tell her, and all I could think about was that eventually I had come to raise that I couldn't bear the thought of living without either of you. She laughed, saying it was sweet but cliche."

"She laughed at you for that?!" Miku burst out indignantly. "In your own house?! How rude!"

"She was asking me about this right after she and Ia-chan blushed at each other." Haku told her.

"It sounds like maybe Meiko is going through some sort of process in her own mind, trying to sort out feelings now that she has the freedom to do so." Luka said gently giving Haku's hand a squeeze with her own. "It was probably a defensive reaction to your answers to her question that she wasn't ready to hear. It wasn't anything against you, I'm sure."

"You're probably right." Haku smiled at her and squeezed both of their hands back. "It made me think about the other night though, about the… about the… wife comments." She blushed a little bit and Miku blushed back.

"I'm still embarrassed about that, Haku-chin." The petite girl said, casting her gaze down, cheeks beginning to heat even more.

Haku's own cheeks were hot too and she had to swallow before she could force herself to whisper. "I wouldn't mind, you know…" It was simultaneously hard and easy to say these things to them, after all they'd been through, with how much she loved them. "Being your wife, I mean…"

Miku's head came back up with the biggest and roundest Haku had ever seen her green eyes get and even Luka looked a little startled. "You… you mean it?! Haku-chin!" She gasped.

"Of course I mean it, I love you both so much it hurts. I can't live without either of you." She tossed her head by way of indicating the mansion around them, her white strands shifting about behind her. "Be my wives in return, and I will be yours, and my house can be our house."

"But we can't get married, we're all girls, it's illegal." Luka pointed out quietly.

"I don't care." Haku said dismissively. "I don't need the government's permission to feel the way I feel. Even if no one else will acknowledge it, I will. No title granted by anyone else could ever define my feelings for either of you anyway."

Luka smiled and leaned up out of her chair and across the corner of the table to press a kiss to Haku's lips, and she returned it eagerly, hungrily. " _I love kissing you so much I can't even handle it sometimes._ " She thought down their connection at the slightly taller idol even as she kept her lips against the other girl's.

Luka pulled back and smiled down at Haku. "I feel the same way." She said quietly and reached up to run a thumb over Haku's lips tenderly. "About all of it." Haku turned expecting Miku to want her turn at a kiss, but the pretty light blue haired girl was just sitting there staring at them, and their connection carried a dubious feeling.

"I suppose that the only real negative to all of this… if you can even really call it a negative…" Miku said slowly as she looked from one of them to the other, "Is that… because we're all girls… it means we can never… well…" she fidgeted uncomfortably and shook her head. "We can never… have a baby…"

Luka and Haku stared at her with eyes as wide and round as hers had been earlier. "Do you… want to have a baby… Miku-chin?" The pink haired beauty asked carefully.

"I mean… I don't know… maybe…? Some day?" She hunched her shoulders and shook her head again. "I don't know. I'm only eighteen, so I guess, no not really right now I don't but… someday I might want to?" She looked up, her gaze a little incensed. "Am I really the only one who's had this thought? Do neither of you ever think you might want to someday have a child?"

The taller idol gave a little shrug in response. "I mean I don't… think so?" She blinked and tilted her head as she considered the notion. "I know that actually bearing a child is deeply important to some women, and though I've never really felt that pull myself... I think maybe someday… I might like to...?"

Haku winced a bit, hating to be the one to break this to them, but there was no one else. "We… we can't." She said quietly and they turned their heads to look at her. "We can't actually bear children anymore. Our bodies… the cybernetic alterations…" She gestured vaguely at her torso and their eyes widened.

"Oh…" Miku said quietly, her eyes dropping to the table top. "That's… oh…" A sense of loss welled up from her in the back of Haku's mind and she leaned over to take Miku by the shoulders, squeezing her tightly. The petite girl leaned into the embrace and sniffled. She didn't actually cry, but Haku caught a feeling of profound loss from her, and from Luka too despite what she'd said. They weren't just feeling the pain at not being able to have a baby, but the sharp edge of profound loss at finding out that their alterations had maimed them in yet another way for the rest of their lives.

"That doesn't make us any less women though." Luka said sternly, trying to lift the tension in the face of the emotional blow. "There are a lot of women who can't have children, because of accidents or… or illnesses…" She trailed off, and Miku nodded but her eyes were still a little glassy.

"If it becomes important to us someday Miku-chin…" Haku told her softly and pressed her lips to the top of the shorter girl's head. "We can always adopt. I know… I know it wouldn't be the same." She hastened to add the last part as she felt an emotional surge from Miku along their cybermind. "I know that, but… but it would be something we could do after all, and we could find someone newly pregnant, maybe a girl too young for it, or not able to care for a child, or something like that, who would let us be involved in the entire thing from start to finish. We could still have a baby, even if it's not the same."

Miku tilted her head at the idea, and a wash of relief began to flood down the link. She nodded and lifted a hand to wipe at her green eyes. "You… you're right, there are… alternatives… it wouldn't be the same, but... it's not like we asked for this…" Haku squeezed her again, and Miku hugged her back before pulling away to reach for a napkin to wipe at her face, and Haku leaned the other way to give Luka the same comforting hug. Surprisingly the taller idol wrapped an arm up around her too in a mutually comforting hug, and it was then that Haku realized a tear had leaked down her own face. She'd known about this for awhile from the notes on their construction, but it had never really sank in before. She'd pushed her feelings about it to the back of her mind, but… there was no hiding it when you shared your very mind with two other people.

"Apologies for interrupting," came the smooth even slightly effeminate voice from nowhere making them all jump slightly in surprise, even Luka which in itself was a testament to the emotional undercurrents. "I thought you may wish to have warning that Aria-sama and Sakine-sama are returning to the dining hall so that you might have a chance to compose yourselves before they do."

"Thank you Vy." Haku said accepting a napkin from Miku and dabbing at her eyes as Luka retrieved one to do the same. When Meiko and Ia did appear in the dining room from the hallway they had initially left from nothing outwardly looked amiss as Miku poured tea and Luka was dividing up pancakes onto plates. The other two girls sat down across from each other beside the two serving and glanced up the table as they accepted plates and cups passed to them.

"I meant to tell you what pretty dresses you were wearing today." Ia said as she admired what they had on. "None of us have had any changes of clothes since we got here though, did you find them in the house?"

In fact Haku had found a dresser and armoir full of clothes but they had all been her parents' old things and she hadn't been able to make herself want to touch them, and her own old things were far to small now. "Actually…" Haku said slowly, and Miku and Luka glanced up at her. They didn't send any objections or concern down the link to her, just glanced at her to see what she'd say. It was her discovery after all, and they thought it her right to tell or not. She'd shared the hair and eye color trick with them already, not having a reason not to, but she hadn't told them about the mental link. For some reason that seemed like an intimidate thing they should figure out for themselves if, our when, it became important. The dress thing though seemed to fall into the same category of "why not?" So she went ahead and told them about it, guided them through it as they ate. It took longer for Meiko to get it than it had for Luka, but Ia picked it up almost immediately, giggling to herself as she made a little silver bracket appear around her wrist that reminded Haku of the one Luka had once gotten her for her birthday.

Miku slathered her banana pancakes in butter, syrup, and cocoa powder and set to with a will. All four of the other girls stared at the display with varying degrees of surprise or distaste, but the petite girl just giggled and took bite after bite with cute little 'nyomp!' sounds. Luka took no syrup and only a little butter and cocoa, and Haku herself ate hers plain and dry. She liked the dichotomy of the slick banana pieces against the coarse pancake in her mouth, enjoying the textures more than the actual taste. She got as many odd looks for that as Miku did for her excessive use of condiments. Once Meiko and Ia had finished getting the hang of the nanite trick they took a bit of the condiments each and began eating, all the while talking between bites about how amazing of a thing it was.

After they had all finished their pancakes Haku stood and begin gathering plates, and Ia immediately stood to help with a smile, "Let me, Haku-chan."

"Oh no, it's alright." She told the pale haired girl. "You can relax."

"Oh no I insist." Ia replied.

"Why don't you come with us, Ia-chan?" Miku said bouncing up out of her chair. "We'll give you your first lesson while we get set up to dance for Haku-chin."

"Oh! Uhm. Alright." Ia said after a moment, setting her plate and cup back down. "If you insist."

Luka glanced at Haku for a moment then came over to lean close to her ear, "Would you mind… dropping out of the link for a bit?" She asked softly, and when Haku widened her eyes Luka smiled and kissed her on the cheek gently. "Just for the song setup, so it's a surprise."

"Oh." Haku nodded, it made sense. She'd been able to feel her girlfriends mulling over it all morning but they hadn't actually considered it directly so she had yet to pick up any of their thoughts on it yet. "Alright." She withdrew her connection, their two minds in the back of her own winking out, and suddenly she was alone in her own head.

"Just for a bit, I promise." Luka said and nuzzled her nose with her own before turning to gather up Miku and Ia and Meiko and head out of the dining room.

Gathering the rest of the dishes and taking them into the kitchen Haku felt extremely lonely without the presence of the other two in her head, and she found that strange too. She'd lived for eighteen years with just herself in her own mind, and regular people went their whole lives like that, so to find she'd gotten so used to it now that she missed them this terribly already was a little unsettling. She went about washing the dishes in an effort to distract herself from the loneliness. There was a dishwasher in the kitchen but she actually got out a sponge and some dish soap to do it herself with the goal of keeping her mind off it. It was only partly successful, and she found herself not entirely sure if she missed the days when they didn't have each other in their heads every possible minute they could. She'd always been a private introverted person; her mind was like her palace and she could disappear into her own thoughts for hours, but now that she had two very extroverted girlfriends who had quite literally taken up residence in her brain she wasn't sure if she was unhappy with it or not. She just kept rolling the concept around in her head, thinking about it from as many angles as she could, the way she did when she was considering some sort of problem, when Vy's voice came from nowhere and startled her again. "Yowane-sama, Megurine-sama wishes you to know they are ready for you, and that you can find them in the empty storeroom in the back of the ground floor."

Haku stared at the dish in her hand, realizing she'd long since finished cleaning them all already and had been running the sponge over a spotless plate while she'd been absorbed in her thoughts for so long that all of the soap had washed out of it. Sighing she set the dish aside to dry on a towel (why didn't they have a drying rack…?) and and tossed the sponge onto the back of the sink after wringing it out. "Thank you Vy."

"You are quite welcome Yowane-sama. Shall I inform Megurine-sama that you are on your way?" Came the smooth response.

"No that's alright, thank you though." She dried her hands off on another towel then made her way out of the dining hall, and it occurred to her she might have been able to simply slough the water off with her nanites…? She'd have to try that next time, it might or might not work. The vaulted hallways had never held any particular interest for her as a child but as she made her way down them now she found herself eying the lavish tapestries, lush carpet, and little display tables with vases on them as she went. She wondered idly where they'd all come from, if her ancestors had bought them or recieved them as gifts or what. She recognized that she was still trying to distract herself, but she let her mind wander indulgently until she reached the rear store room. The fact that it was mostly empty made the large room seem even more vast than it was, and the first thing Haku noticed was Miku and Luka standing toward the back wall in the middle a few meters apart with their heads bowed and their eyes closed. They could have been statues for how still they were standing. They'd changed their outfits too, or rather had change their nanites to appear as different outfits now that they could, looking dressed in a very avante garde or savant sort of way. There were a couple of chairs toward the middle of the room, two spaced back from one that was more forward, and Meiko and Ia in the back two turned as she came in and gestured toward the forward chair.

"They said to sit here when you're ready." Meiko said.

Haku nodded and stepped toward the chair and sat down. As soon as she did she felt the nudge of their cyberminds against hers, and she accepted the connection happily enough, more than eager to have their minds bloom into existence in her head once more. As they did however an entire elaborate 3D rendering seemed to pop into existence all around her along with them, taking up every corner and centimeter of wallspace. The 3D scene was so elaborately detailed that the covered walls of the room seemed almost to fade away as she looked around in wide eyed awe at the dark rolling hills, an eerie reddish moon covered by dark clouds casting ominous shadows from overhead, and behind her girlfriends a huge towering volcano with lava oozing down one side of it. She only had a moment or two to gaze at the renderings all around her before the music started, a fast paced hauntingly beautiful beat that had the two gorgeous idols before her looking up and stepping to the music right off. She'd never heard this song before and a title drifted to her down their link, though she was honestly unsure which of them the words " _Akatsuki Arrival_ " came from.

It was like a live action music video to Haku, able to see the scenery the other two were generating in their virtual workspace, just as Haku had taught them to do. The lyrics began to wash over her as Luka and Miku sang and danced, their rendition transporting Haku mentally to another time and place. Two girls who started as rivals training together to accomplish a dangerous goal, growing closer together through long shared hours of struggle and hardship, forming a bond, and perhaps maybe even falling in love. But the task that lay before them was too dire, too ominous, and they never admitted it to each other, and abruptly Haku realized that every lyric, every line of the song was delivered in past tense. Tears sprang to her eyes and she felt her throat choke up and her chest constrict with sorrow as instinct told her what was coming. The music solo played as they danced, the lyrics pausing and the 3D rendering shifting to show the two girls interacting through their training. But slowly, to Haku's eyes, Miku seemed to become obscured by a dark fog. The music peaked, a rolling electric guitar solo of high alarming notes. Luka whirled, shocked, distraught, terrified. Miku reached out, clearly in some kind of distress… and the fog swallowed her. Haku began to sob quietly as emotion overwhelmed her, a dim thought in the back of her mind hoping that her emotional response to the song didn't distract her girlfriends from their performance, but they were too experienced as performers for that. The lyrics went on, and though all she could see of Miku was a silhouette in the dark misty blur around her, the pair resumed the dance and the lyrics came back. They sang on, about the task still needing to be accomplished, about having to move forward despite the sorrow, despite wishing they'd reached out before it was too late. Never forget… I'll go on… It's what you would have wanted… But I'll never forget… Luka seemed to rush up the crest of the volcano, the mists hid Miku away completely, and the red moon faded away. The dark clouds broke, lightened, and revealed a brilliant sun and a dawn sky. The music faded on the last note, the 3D scenery slowly winked out, and Haku lost control and began to cry. She put her hands to her face and bawled into her palms, then a moment later she felt her girlfriends' comforting arms going around her. Miku wasn't dead. She was right here. She threw her arms up and clung to them, clung so hard she knew she was hurting them, could feel their necks creaking in protest along the link. " _Don't die! I need you! Please, oh gods I'm sorry! I need you please!_ " She thought at them frantically along the connection.

" _It's okay Haku-chin, we're right here._ " Luka thought soothingly even as she stroked the crying girl's white locks.

" _Right here with you, we're all together._ " Miku added her own thoughts and Haku squeezed harder still. She'd never lost control of herself like this at a song before and it shamed her, but the literal mental imagery had been too potent, the parallels to their current life too strong; the insurmountable task, the hours of struggling together, the danger they were always in… and the thought of Miku being dead… of EITHER of them being dead… Haku just clung and cried harder.

"I don't get it…" Meiko said from her chair behind Haku. "I mean it was a good song, but…?"

"I think it was… something personal to them…" Ia whispered to her, and Meiko made an understanding noise in the back of her throat.

" _We're sorry we had to make our point like this, Haku-chin._ " Luka sent down the link. " _We just want you to know how much we love you, and what it would be like if we lost you._ "

" _I understand. I understand and I'm so very sorry, I swear. I'm sorry, please I need you, I need you both, I can't live without you._ " Haku was still frantic.

" _We're not going anywhere._ " Miku thought tenderly, and finally it was that glowing golden glow of love from them that at last managed to calm her, to slow her tears and gradually relaxed her once more.

When she'd at last managed to get herself under control once more she leaned back, and winced apologetically at them when she felt the very obvious relief at her arms loosening around their necks. "Sorry." She murmured aloud.

"Are you okay, Haku-chan?" Ia asked quietly behind her, passing a napkin up for her, which she accepted. It was a day for tears, it seemed.

"It… was a really sad song…" Haku muttered lamely, knowing it wasn't a good explanation. After all, they hadn't been privy to the 3D stage she herself had gotten to watch. They nodded anyway though, then stood up.

"We'll uh, we'll leave you three alone." Meiko said, and Luka stood and shook her head. "No, stay please. We promised you a lesson."

"Is that… alright?" Ia asked carefully, and Luka nodded.

"It's alright." Haku told them once she'd gotten her face cleaned up a bit. "I'm okay, I'll just go freshen up and come right back."

"I'll go with you, Haku-chin." Miku said, and Haku nodded and took the shorter girl's hand. As they made their way to the bathroom all Haku could think of was how desperately she had to figure out how to correct this problem in her head. She had to. For them, she had to. Miku helped clean her up, stroking at Haku's face lovingly with a washcloth in slow tender stokes, smiling up at her the whole time. Once she was presentable again they made their way back to the storage room, and Haku sat to the side thinking at the problem of her head from all sides she could see to it, as she always did when solving a problem. Her girlfriends took turns sitting with her while instructing the others, and she worked at her own task in her mind. The crying for the day was over, it was time for action.


	34. Vocaloid Academy Chapter 34

**Author's Note:** Hey guys, small announcement this time. After 35 chapters and over 400k words I've finally hit writer's block. When I first thought up this whole story I wanted it to be half fluff and half action, and I had a couple of major story arcs in mind for it and well, we've gone through them now just about and I'm not entirely sure where I want to go from here. There's tons of options for sure, but I'm not set on anything yet and I've spent the past two weeks not writing anything new, just burning my chapters I had in advance. All that being said, I do still intend to write more so don't worry about that, just that updates might slow down a bit until I get my head sorted out. I'm sorry, I know it sucks, I'll do my best, but please be patient and try not to message me TOO crazily about updates. Ehehe...! Anyway, enjoy!

* * *

Consciousness came on like it always did for her, a slow infinitesimal iota at a time at first as awareness began to make itself known in various ways; the feel of the pillow against her face, the soft blanket draped over her bare skin, the firmness of the mattress beneath her. Then as soon as these things were apparent the rest of the world came rushing in and she opened her eyes. The very first thing she noticed was that she was alone and this came as a sort of cold shock enough for Luka to sit up straight in bed, the blanket falling away as the morning air brushed her nakedness, her pink flowing hair frizzing around her. She looked around at the room as though searching for her girlfriends, but had they been there she knew she would have been able to sense their wireless signals through their cybernetic implants. She was used to waking up to find Haku there or not, as the exotic snowy haired beauty always seemed to be awake first of the the three of them and would frequently slip out to get them breakfast or use the bathroom or whatever else, but she always came back within minutes. Miku however was another story altogether, as the green eyed girl never seemed to like waking up and would usually fight it unless coaxed by one of the other two. Oh she liked being awake well enough once she got there, never wanting to miss a moment of the waking world, but the actual process of coming awake was always an ordeal for her, and so she was always last to consciousness, or usually so at any rate. She checked the time with a thought aimed inward, her internal systems telling her it was much closer to mid morning than early, and she knew if they were coming back from a brief excursion to the bathroom or something they'd already have been back. Something felt off about today…

Throwing the soft blanket off herself all together she slid out of the massive bed in the equally huge room in the Yowane estate they'd been using for weeks now and padded over to the dresser, taking two or three steps before stopping herself. A lifetime of clothing herself, years of being a world famous idol, and her thoughts seemed to drift to clothing so effortlessly. It was hard sometimes for her to remember all the amazing things her genius girlfriend had discovered for them, and there in the middle of the room she concentrated inward for a moment. Her will exerted the need from her biological mind to be interpreted by her cybernetic systems and her nanites responded. She couldn't feel any of that actually happening of course and she tried not to get distracted by how completely alien it still felt to her to consider the mechanical side of herself being a cyborg, but she wouldn't lie to herself about it, accepting the beauty in what Haku had helped her to discover within the cold metal of their artificial reality. She still stopped a minute to twirl around in a stand mirror though; the beautiful pink rippling skirt and white blouse she'd conjured for herself might be fake, but it looked real and she took a moment to admire herself anyway. She added a wide glittering metallic white belt before moving over to the dresser and taking up her brush. Usually one of the other two would have brushed it for her, as she would have for them, but as neither were there she ran it through her own cascading pink strands and then left it to flow freely on it's own. She glanced out the sliding door to see the balcony to their room empty before leaving the room without tying her hair back in any way.

Her next stop was the closest bathroom to freshen up, partly hoping to run into one of the other girls there as she went in to the bathroom which was just as grand and luxurious as the rest of the mansion, but it was empty and didn't look like it had been used recently. Once she'd brushed her teeth, made herself smell nice, and had seen to her other morning necessities, she left the bathroom in search her wayward lovers. She had a mind to check the kitchen, the dining room, the lounges they'd used, maybe even going outside, but a smooth slightly effeminate voice came from nowhere disrupting her plans before she could do anything, and nearly making her jump except that she'd managed to school her reflexes on that point at least. "Good morning, Megurine-sama. Did you sleep well?"

"Yes Vy, thank you." She replied trying to keep the slight annoyance out of her voice. Haku was always pleasant and polite to the mansion's artificial intelligence even when Vy made her jump, and she always got this… look in her red eyes if anyone else wasn't. Not anger exactly, not annoyance, but… Luka glanced off down a vaulted corridor. "Are Haku-chin and Miku-chin home?" She asked.

"Hatsune-sama departed this morning on a Vocaloid errand. Yowane-sama is in the garage. Shall I alert her for you?" Vy asked.

"No thank you, I'll go see her." The garage? Luka made her way out there wondering what Haku could possibly be doing out there. 'Vocaloid errand' meant Miku was chasing a soul drinker, probably having been awakened by the device her father had given them buzzing on the nightstand. She didn't have the faintest clue about Haku though, but she didn't have long to wonder as she headed out that way. Her cybernetic sense kicked in first, then as she got closer she took the side passage beside the currently hidden door down to the lab and came out into the mostly empty garage. It wasn't as big as the one in the Vocaloid Compound had been, though it would have easily held half a dozen vehicles, but the snowy haired girl had opened the doors wide and moved Luka's motorcycle into a corner out of the way. There was no sign of the other two cars, which if Miku wasn't home made sense where the Ferrari was, and the only vehicle actually inside was the massive Karlmann King pulled up beside a rolling tray covered in tools, a laptop, and a spherical pulsing core. She knew it on sight, the damaged V-Core from the armored goliath they had appropriated from Haku's parent's old lab, and the huge SUV itself was currently completely dark, no light on inside it at all. Now that she was close enough she could feel Haku's wireless signal, had been able to feel it before even reaching the garage, but the mansion was so large she had been just out of range when she'd been upstairs and in the back of the house. She moved up to the open side door of the SUV gingerly and looked in. Haku sat cross legged on the floor in the back of big vehicle, the hatch to the V-Core compartment open and a mass of electrical cables beside her. The smaller newer power core Miku's father had given her sat in her lap, glowing brightly and stably and providing the only light inside the car, but Haku sat there perfectly still, her head in her hands and her elbows on her knees. "Is the headache still getting worse?" She asked her girlfriend gently, quietly, trying not to add to the agony.

Haku didn't jump or make any startled motion at all; she would have sensed Luka's wireless signal approaching as well as Luka herself had been able to sense her upon entering range. Ordinarily they would have reached out for that direct mind to mind link they so treasured the instant they became aware of the other's signal, but with Haku's head getting worse and worse the past week the connection itself had seemed to begin to pain her and neither Luka nor Miku had wanted to make it any worse. It was getting worse though, slowly and steadily with each passing day, the point of constant pain the entire past week. "Yes." Came Haku's soft reply without stirring from where she was sitting. "The warning letters never go away now. They're always on, just sometimes they shrink to a corner of my vision."

Luka felt her heart breaking, wanted to scream, to howl with the heartache of watching her beloved's health deteriorating. It was so hard to handle, she wanted to weep every minute of every day that she had to see the other girl in pain. That wouldn't do either of them any good however, and so she bottled it, for Haku's sake. She and Miku could, and did every night, cry on each other's shoulder later after their red eyed beauty finally passed out from sheer exhaustion, could comfort each other at least, but Haku… they had to be strong for her. "Why are you out here?"

"I'm replacing the V-Core in the Karlmann." Came the answer, still without looking up.

"I can see that, I mean why are you out here doing that now?" Luka amended her statement softly. She didn't get mad, it just made her sad. Haku was dying, she was entitled to be a little curt of mood. The thing that upset Luka was that she wasn't in the lab, wasn't working on the solution. They'd been at it for weeks now, and either herself or Miku was always with her, every waking minute. Neither of them could bear the thought of possibly having something go wrong when neither were there, and she was upset because Miku had gone out somewhere and Haku hadn't woken her up, and now she wasn't in the lab working on the fix for it.

"I wanted to work on a problem I could actually solve for a little bit, trying to feel a little better." Haku all but whispered, her silvery voice was muted, sullen. "Only my head started hurting so bad in the middle of it I couldn't see straight, so now I can't even do that." A tear leaked down though the snowy haired girl's fingers splayed over her face, and Luka wanted to cry too. She had an urge to get in and take her lover in her arms and comfort her, only she knew Haku well enough to know that wouldn't do more than make her recede further into her mind right then. Her red eyed beauty was a genius, even if she herself didn't think so, and Luka knew that with the way Haku's mind worked nothing less than a small victory would pick her spirits up right then.

Setting a foot up inside she climbed into the Karlmann on the opposite side of the hatch from Haku and put on a smile for the other girl. "Then I'll be your eyes."

Haku did look up then, a bare shifting of her head to meet her gaze. It took an effort of will for Luka not to sob at the sight; her poor girlfriend's already red eyes were bloodshot from sleeping so poorly these past nights, the pain causing what sleep she could finally get after dropping from exhaustion fitful and unrestful. Instead she smiled encouragingly and the other girl tilted her head up at her. "I thought we… weren't linking… while I was… sick?"

Luka giggled trying to keep the mood light despite feeling awful inside and shook her head. "I didn't say linking, silly. I know we're cyborgs, but I'm talking about the old fashioned way with eyes ears and mouths. Here," She leaned forward over the hatch and gently pushed Haku backward toward the rear seats. "Close your eyes, rest, and let me do the work. You can envision it in your mind, and I'll do what you say and how, okay?" Haku didn't resist, letting herself be pushed backward, closing her eyes as she'd been instructed and shifting against the rear seat until she was comfortable. Luka took up a spot beside her lover, glancing down and wondering idly if Haku was wearing her actual clothes or had made her nanites and biogel simply look like it. She hoped she was actually dressed, it would be one less thing for her cyber systems to be taxed with in her weakened state. "Now," She said, resting a hand on Haku's knee. "I have a new V-Core, an open hatch, and a bunch of wires. Where do I start?"

"Mmmm… Set the V-Core on the little base the old one used to be on, should be a docking port on the bottom of the core it will connect to."

Luka picked the core up from Haku's lap and bent to click it into place on it's base. Nothing happened. "Okay, now what?"

"It sounded like it clicked into place properly, so we won't need adapters. There's a little switch beside the base, if you flip it do the front dashboard lights come on?"

Luka flipped the switched and glanced up to see the indicator lights indeed on. "Yep, but nothing else."

"That's good, we haven't connected anything else yet. Switch it back off, and we'll start hooking up wires." Haku was practically whispering, and over the next half hour Luka hooked up everything as she was told even as Haku's voice got quieter and quieter. By the time everything was all finished and Luka closed the hatch Haku wasn't stirring or making any noise. She leaned up beside her girlfriend and put an ear to the other girl's lips, and feeling breath realized that Haku had fallen asleep. The poor thing must have been exhausted, driving herself so hard for their sakes. Luka propped herself against the other seat and put an arm gently around her snowy haired angel and just held her while she slept, letting herself shed a few quiet tears there in private, worried for one of the loves of her life as she was. Laying there in the dark of the big SUV the ugly truth of how dire the situation was seemed to loom up out of the shadows before her, and it terrified her, made her quail in a way nothing else in her life ever had before. She sniffled, trying to keep from making much noise, not wanting to disturb her love. She didn't exactly pay attention to the time but now that she was aware of having an internal clock she knew exactly how long the hour was that she lay there cradling Haku before she became aware of Miku's signal and heard the rumbling of the Ferrari as Miku came back, parking in the driveway and cutting the engine. Trying as hard as she could not to jostle Haku even as she accepted Miku's connection request she shifted her leg so she could lean up and over the other girl and got out of the SUV even as Miku came walking up the driveway.

Luka put a finger to her lips and walked them back out of the garage to lean on the hood of the Ferrari, thinking rather than speaking to keep from making noise that might wake Haku. " _She's asleep in the Karlmann._ "

Mku straddled her legs over Luka's thighs to lean forward on her rather than the four eighty-eight and reached a hand up to brush at the tears still damp on Luka's cheeks. " _At least she's resting, she looked totally awful this morning when I left to hunt a souldrinker._ "

" _Why didn't you wake me up?_ " Luka asked silently.

" _You didn't wake up when the thing buzzed at us, I thought you must have been extra tired after watching Haku-chin so late last night. I wanted to let you rest too._ " Came Miku's reply. The light blue haired girl leaned forward to wrap her arms around Luka. " _You push yourself just as hard as she does trying to look out for us, but you need to rest sometimes too you know. You're our rock, Luka-chin. We need you, so you need to take care of yourself as much as us, ne?_ "

Luka widened her eyes in surprise at the sentiment, touched deep down, and then wrapped her arms around Miku's middle and pressed her face into the shorter girl's collar bone just above the sleeve of her deep blue blouse and tight black pants she'd apparently shifted into for a hunting outfit. There in those comforting arms of the only other person on the planet she let see her weakness, she let the sobs come. " _I'm so afraid, Miku-chin. I'm so scared of just waking up and finding her gone. I'm terrified I'll lay down to sleep one night, and the next morning she'll just… be…_ " She couldn't finish the thought, not even in her head. Hot tears splashed against Luka's own shoulder, and they clung to each other. Miku didn't say anything, aloud or in their heads, she didn't have to. They were both terrified, in a way far above and beyond the pain they'd felt when Haku had simply left. If they lost their snowy angel this time, there would be no finding her again.

After they cried for a while Miku leaned back and whispered, "What are we going to do?"

"I'm going to wait right here until she wakes up." Luka whispered back. "She's been sleeping so badly since the headaches stopped going away that I think we should let her get whatever rest she can."

Miku thought about it a minute, blinking and tilting her head, her light blue twintails shifting behind her as she sent, " _Maybe we could work on helping her somehow._ "

" _How? You heard her before, it's a hardware problem. She's the only one who can fix her coding._ _What can we do?_ " Luka thought to her.

" _She's been teaching us to code. Maybe we could… try…?_ " Her thoughts were hesitant, her green eyes wide, and Luka only stared at her. " _Well it would be better than just sitting here watching her die wouldn't it?_ "

Luka squeezed the other girl to her. " _You're right, it would be._ "

"Luka-chin?" Came Haku's soft voice from the SUV and Miku bounded off her lap so they could both rush to the monstrous vehicle. They put their heads into side door to look down at their beautiful genius.

"We're here, Haku-chin." Luka said comfortingly.

"How are you feeling?" Miku asked quietly.

"Mmm, tired, but… that nap made the headache ease up a little." She tried to sit up and they both reached out to help her. Haku took one of their hands each and levered herself toward the vehicle's door. "I can see straight again, at least. Help me… down to the lab? I should get back to work."

"How about…" Luka said thoughtfully as she leaned down to pull one of Haku's arms over her shoulders. The slightly shorter girl wasn't so weak that she couldn't hold her own balance but Luka was feeling extremely protective of her and didn't want to leave her to it alone. "How about we take the laptop from the Behemoth here and set it up in the lounge? The chairs are more comfortable, and you can relax while you work."

Miku leaned into the Karlmann to retrieve the suggested laptop and tried to put on a bright expression for Haku's benefit, though Luka could feel her internal turmoil along their link. "That way we can keep you as snug as possible! Oh! And! If you fall asleep while you're working, at least you'll already be in a comfortable chair, ne? You can just nap whenever it hits you, that way you don't have to worry about silly things like moving around while you're not up to it."

Haku made a great show of a long suffering sigh, but Luka could tell by the slight wrinkling at the corners of her eyes that she was actually enjoying the attention. "If you think that's best."

"We do!" Miku skipped along ahead of them doing her best to put up her brave energetic front, to be the adorable bubbly idol Haku had fallen in love with. "Oh! And! As soon as we get you settled in, I'll run into town and get you aaaaaaaanything you might want to eat or drink! How's that sound? Dinner catering service Hatsune Miku style!"

"That's sweet of you Miku-chin, but I'm not… really very hungry." Haku replied carefully as they led her down the vaulted hallways. "Besides, didn't Meiko-chan and Ia-chan go out shopping? They'll bring something back."

"You haven't been eating much the last few days Haku-chin." Luka chided gently. "You need to keep your strength up."

"It hurts too much to chew…" Haku complained quietly as they reached the lounge. She picked a plush wide chair by a window with a nice view and they eased her down into it. She sank into the cushions of the chair that was so wide it looked like it could have seated two. Miku moved a little end table up to Haku's side and placed the laptop on it, and the snowy haired girl sighed in relief at being settled once more.

"Maybe Miku-chin could go for tea?" Luka suggested.

"Oh! Totes! I know a great little place! I'll be back in no time!" She hurried off before Haku could object and right before their link broke again Luka sent a thought to Miku.

" _Bring her some ramen, something with noodles so soft she doesn't need to chew any of it._ " She got a wordless assent before the connection broke and a minute later she could hear the Ferrari roaring back out of the driveway once more.

Luka turned to sit on a loveseat across a coffee table from Haku's chair and the other girl looked up at her. "Do you know what the biggest problem is?" She asked quietly.

"Tell me." Luka said glad her girlfriend was opening up to her about it

"It's that I'm not actually a scientist." Haku said in a quiet tone. "I'm good with computers and code, sure, but I don't know anything about biology or medicine or cybernetics as a profession. And I'm supposed to just magically figure it out and fix it?" She lifted a hand to snap her fingers in the air. "Just like that? It took a team of four world class doctors and cyberneticists, Miku-chin's and my parents, a decade and a half of their lives _after_ they were already experts in their fields, to even conceptualize and create us!" She dropped her hand into her lap hopelessly and her big round red eyes seemed to entreat Luka, to swallow her up with her look of pleading. "What's wrong with me is the result of four long term genius minds screwing up an attempt at a prototype after decades of combined experience and research. How am I supposed to fix that in a couple of weeks?!"

Luka stood up and moved around the coffee table and gently sat down in the big plush chair with Haku, wrapping her arms around her snowy angel. "Because you're better than them, Haku-chin." She said gently and cradled her love against her. Haku burrowed into her arms now ready to accept the comfort as Luka stroked her white locks gently. "The Director said your entire family were gifted with strong traits of genius, and now you're a cyborg. You've got the natural intelligence as well as the technological advantage. And to top it all off, you were designed for this sort of thing. It's not only in your nature, it's quite literally built into you on the whole. You have everything you need right here. We have a lab, computers, hardware, the code back up on that flash drive, a safe place to hide, and you have Miku-chin and I to help you in any possible way we can."

"You make it sound so easy." Haku mumbled against her neck where her head was pillowed on Luka's shoulder.

She hadn't seen Haku this raw and unsure of herself in months since she'd gotten so good at that mysterious exotic mask she wore, but everyone had their insecure moments and she just squeezed her close again. "I believe in you Haku-chin, that's all."

"I wish I believed in me." She said sullenly.

"You do." Haku blinked up at her in confusion and she giggled. "You believe in me, don't you?" The other girl nodded and Luka gave her her small private smile. "And I believe in you. So therefore, indirectly through me, you believe in yourself."

Haku stared at her sternly. "That makes no sense."

"Making sense is your job." She told her. Haku poked her in the side with a finger. Luka squeaked and giggled at her. "Now, how can I help?"

Haku shifted her gaze over to the laptop consideringly. "In theory all I need to do is isolate what part of the code in the drivers are conflicting with my energy draining hardware." She stayed where she was, clearly enjoying the snuggle, and Luka was more than happy to hold her. "If I can find out what is conflicting I could try and rewrite the driver."

"So what's the problem?" Luka asked, stroking Haku's hair some more.

"The problem is it's not as easy as opening up a computer window to see driver and hardware status. In order to get those details I'd need to be in a diagnostic cycle to generate those reports, and I can't exactly look over myself while in a diagnostic cycle."

"Couldn't I run those scans for you?" Luka wanted to know.

Haku nodded very slightly to keep from hurting her head more. "Sure, but you wouldn't know what you're looking at, would you?"

"You've taught us a lot." Luka said trying not to sound defensive.

"I've taught you enough that you could easily pass any beginner or intermediate programming class, but this is advanced robotics we're talking about. If you could understand what you were seeing, what would you do about it?" She sighed heavily and looked down dejectedly. "What would I even do about it? We may only get one shot at this, Luka-chin…"

Luka blinked in confusion. "One…? Why? We can't just keep trying?"

Haku shook her head gently. "What we're talking about doing isn't simply altering software code. It's the firmware that drives the hardware, the very fabric of how my cybernetic implants are controlled by my Vocaloid Chip. We have to flash that firmware."

She said it in so heavy a tone it obviously held great import but Luka didn't understand. "What does that mean? Flashing firmware?"

"Without firmware to drive the processor…" Haku said slowly. "Nothing could function. Everything would shut down. Flashing is a term used to change the firmware on a read only device such as the Vocaloid Chip. It removes the old programming and replaces it with the new code. If it's done incorrectly, or if the wrong code is used… at best the hardware simply stops working until flashed again. At worst… incorrectible hardware corruption." Tears were in both of their eyes now. "Either way, my Chip goes offline and my hardware shuts down, and because our cybernetic systems are what… revived us… post mortem… I'd go back to being… inert."

Go back to being a corpse she meant, but that thought was so horrifying they couldn't say it. For the first time Luka really understood the danger Haku was facing, truly grasped what her beautiful angel had understood this entire time. The cold reality of it was that without their cybernetic systems to keep them animate they were basically just dead. If their hardware failed like that, they had no miracle serum that the Hatsunes or Yowanes had developed to stop cellular necrotization. They couldn't keep death at bay, and even if they could, there could be no telling what kind of damage would be done to Haku's Vocaloid Chip if the flash went wrong. Maybe the doctors could work some miracle, and maybe Haku herself could too, but if it went badly, all she would have would be Luka and Miku standing there at her side… watching as she…

"Teach me more code Haku-chin." Luka suddenly said insistently trying not to let the sudden overwhelming fear conquer her, her voice so intent that Haku looked up. "I mean really teach me. I never really understood why it was so important before, but if something goes wrong I need to be able to understand it."

Haku looked up at her for a long few moments, tilting her head the barest tiny bit. She had that look in her red eyes that Luka knew all too well, that look of boundless wisdom she sometimes got when a plan was beginning to form within her mind and she was tugging at the edges trying to make it take shape. "I could…" She paused a moment, her hand on Luka's chest tightening in the artificial fabric of her white blouse. "I think I could… give you all my raw knowledge of coding. All the commands, what they do…"

"I thought you said before that that wouldn't work. That having the raw knowledge wouldn't give me the experiences or make me able to use them properly." She replied dubiously.

"It wouldn't… but it would make you understand when something goes wrong…" Haku said quietly. "It would make you able to look things over already in place, and it would save you the time of actually learning it, you would just need practice to really grasp the best uses and the hows and the whys of coding. And you could start by looking through the base Vocaloid code, your own code and Miku-chin's after that, to see what real time changes look like, updates and the like. I could explain as we go, and maybe the act of teaching would help spark some inspiration in me."

Luka frowned thoughtfully. It seemed like a good idea, but… "Wouldn't we have to link for the data transfer…?" Haku just stared at her, of course they would have to link for it. "Using your cybernetic systems seems to make you worse, Haku-chin. Is that a good idea…?"

Haku gave a little shrug of one shoulder. "Whether it's actually making me worse or just hurts to do it isn't really clear, but if it makes me a little worse now but helps you to help us figure this out faster… isn't it worth it?""

"Well… I suppose…" She couldn't like it, but Luka knew that as things stood she was absolutely no help to her girlfriend, and in the face of what she now understood the situation to really be, she had to help, she had to do something. She felt Haku's connection request, saw the datastream extending toward her, and accepted the link. Her wonderful angel's mind burst into existence in the back of her head, and she gasped at the shock of pain that seemed to wash through her head. "Haku-chin! My god!" A tear leaked down her cheek as she reached up to run a hand lovingly over the other girl's face. "How can you stand it?! You're not even crying, or even showing it!"

"I was earlier in the car… when you found me, it was worse…" Haku said quietly, and Luka recalled how she'd found her hunched in the back of the Karlmann, face in her palms and unable to even move. She wanted to scream, to wail, to cry for her girlfriend, but instead she just held her, squeezed her tighter around the middle and cradled her to her as the data transfer began. The pain was intense, the red warning letters angry and ominous. They just lay there in the chair together clutching at each other, and she could feel that despite the pain, despite everything, Haku was just happy to be linked again. She hadn't been in nearly a week since it had begun hurting her too much to do it, and Luka could feel the loneliness in her from the lack. She shifted her head so her chin was above Haku's head so that her love wouldn't see the tears leaking down her face, wouldn't see her crying silently for her. She knew she could feel it from her though, and they clung to each other sadly.

By the time Miku got back they had finished the data transfer and disconnected, and even that simple transfer seemed to have drained Haku of what energy her nap had restored to her. Luka regretfully detangled herself from her snowy angel so that Miku could take her place and help Haku get some ramen in her; she'd gone to get it after all, it was only fair. She took a spot on the loveseat once more and watched the two women she loved so much, replaying what had happened while Miku was gone down their link for the petite girl to watch while she fed Haku despite her protests that she could do it herself. Outwardly Miku just giggled at their angel and made silly eating noises, teasing Haku a little bit with the spoon as she helped her get some noodles and broth down. She'd brought tea for all of them too, and pocky, but Haku didn't show any interest in the treats, though Miku did make her drink some tea. On the inside though Miku's heart was absolutely breaking the same as Luka's as she watched the replayed memory of the conversation they'd had while she was gone. Wordlessly Luka felt her desire for the same coding data, the same need to help, to do something, ANYTHING, to keep Haku with them, and so Luka transferred the data to her that Haku had given her.

Once she'd gotten some of the ramen down and drank some of the tea Haku leaned back in the cushy chair, spent from the effort of eating so carefully, closed her eyes and breathed deeply. Luka and Miku watched her intently as she managed to drift off into another fitful nap, then the petite girl extricated herself slowly and carefully from the big chair, turned, and practically dove in against Luka. She caught the shorter girl in her arms and squeezed her tight as Miku's floodgates opened, the effort of keeping up a brave face for Haku too much now that she was asleep, and Luka cradled her to herself even tighter than she'd held on to Haku earlier as Miku let the tears fall. She was quiet if not altogether silent, but in her mind, down their connection, she was screaming. Luka understood, she felt the same.

It took her a long time to calm down and when she finally did Miku went off to clean her face up, and Luka stepped out briefly to retrieve the laptop that the director had given them and the flash drive with the Vocaloid baseline code, bringing them back to the lounge and placing them on the coffee table before booting up the laptop. She wanted to have both laptops so they could both work, and was pleased to find it already loaded with all the same diagnostic programs that the terminals in the lab had, which is probably why he'd given it to them in the first place. When Miku came back they set to work together, communicating entirely down their link to keep from waking Haku up, trying to learn the coding better and understand how it worked, trying to make sense of the data their girlfriend had given them. By the time dinner time came around Meiko and Ia got back, and Luka stepped out of the room briefly to explain what was going on. They knew Haku was getting worse, but they hadn't known the severity of the situation because no one had told them about the problems. They were more than amenable to help though, and Ia said she would cook meals that were easy to get down that didn't involve a lot of jaw work for Haku. Meiko said she had no problems cleaning up and running into town for things, and it was nice to have friends to rely on in a time like this.

The next few days passed like that, and the three girls practically moved into the lounge. Neither of them wanted to be far from Haku and the snow haired girl seemed to do alright in her chair. They helped her to the bathroom and back whenever needed and brought her whatever she might have wanted, but she never asked for much and they had to practically feed her to get her to eat enough, though it helped that Ia's cooking was absolutely delicious. Luka and Miku spent most of their time on the coding work, and whenever Haku was conscious she'd help them with it, going over the Vocaloid baseline with them line for line and explaining what was where and what it did and why and all that, and Luka and Miku both payed rapt attention. Their girlfriend's life was literally on the line and nothing could have motivated them more than that. With each passing day though Haku's energy levels seemed to drop further, and she had less and less time awake and spent more and more in fitful sleep in the chair. The pain would spike and fade back and forth but overall was climbing upward each day, and sometimes their poor angel was delirious with it, unable to sleep from the torment but also not able to focus her senses or attention through it either. Whenever that happened one or the other of them would lay with her in the chair, clutching her and whispering softly and as comfortingly as possible while Haku clung to them and moaned in agony. It was absolutely soul wrenching to see her like that and neither Luka or Miku could stop the tears when it happened, whichever of them not able to be in the chair drawing a stool up to hold on to the other two.

One day Luka came awake on the loveseat to find Haku awake and apparently alert. She had one of the laptops on her lap and her fingers were dancing along the keyboard. Luka shook Miku who was unconscious practicality atop Luka and the petite girl made a snrk sound and looked up with a sleepy, "Hmm?"

Haku turned her head a tiny bit to look at them and smiled. "Good morning sleepyheads."

"Haku-chin!" Miku gasped and scrambled up off of Luka to go hug the girl in the chair.

"I suppose I should say 'afternoon'" Haku giggled and leaned her head back slowly to give Miku a kiss, which the pretty light blue haired girl accepted greedily.

Luka stood to go get a kiss to, and she didn't think she'd ever tasted anything so sweet in her entire life as her snowy angel's lips and tongue that morning. "You seem to be doing much better Haku-chin." She told her.

"You had the worst fit we've seen so far last night," Miku said worriedly. "We were up with you the whole night, it was soooooo scary."

"I'm sorry." Haku said, and they shook their heads at that. "After I finally fell asleep again I had a dream."

"Ooooooo, what kind of dream?!" Miku bubbled, and she was right to be excited. Haku's dreams always seemed to lead her to answers or at least along the paths to them. She set her fingers back to the keyboard and began working again, and Miku slipped into the chair beside her while Luka drew the stool they'd been using up beside so they could watch her working. The screen had one of the diagnostic windows open, but the code wasn't anything like what they'd seen so far. Luka almost thought she could follow it though, something about the way the algorithms were aligned…?

"In my dream I was sitting on a narrow bridge made out of nanites suspended over a pit hundreds of feet deep and so wide around I couldn't have jumped to the edge in any direction. To either side of me on the edges of the ravine were copies of myself, the one on the left was glowing brightly and the one on the right was crackling with that black anti light we've seen from my energy draining abilities. In the dream the bridge below me was slowly deteriorating and I couldn't seem to control the nanties and knew I was going to fall except that the copies of me on either side had ropes tied to my wrists and were pulling at me. If I could get control of the nanites and stabilize the bridge I could have walked away, but if I couldn't and the bridge dropped then my copies would pull me apart as they yanked at me from either direction."

When Haku trailed off they both stared at her wide eyed and Miku let out a breathless, "Then what happened?!"

Haku shrugged one shoulder ever so slightly. "Nothing, I woke up." Miku let out an 'awww!' sound in disappointment, and Haku smiled. "The symbolism struck a chord in me though. The copies were clearly my Vocaloid side and my Souldrinker side warring over me, the cause of my pain right? The pit, the plunge into the abyss. The nanite bridge, the coding that's breaking down that I need to fix."

"So what does it mean then?" Luka asked curiously.

Haku looked up at her. "It means I've been going about this all wrong. We've been assuming that we need to flash my Vocaloid Chip with new code so it can control my energy draining abilities. But a regular Vocaloid Chip was never made to do that, it was never designed with that intent. The copies of me in my dream weren't fighting each other, they were both tugging at me. I'm a hybrid, a prototype experiment. My parents might be wicked people to all evidence, but they're still geniuses right? They would still have known what was needed, even if they screwed it up."

"Then… you think you don't have a normal Vocaloid Chip?" Miku asked trying to grasp what she was saying.

By way of answer Haku tabbed on her laptop screen to a section of documents she had open. "Look here, my construction data. I still had it from when I downloaded it before. Here's the chip I have." The brought up a blueprint of a chip on the page before her and pointed and the other two read over her shoulder.

"Viroid Chip…?" Luka read aloud.

"We know my parents were working on weaponizing Vocaloid technology, and we know that I was a prototype, as was Juon-san. My energy draining abilities, or Viroid abilities, were latent until recently, while hers seemed much stronger and more developed than her Vocaloid abilities were. I think my parents are still trying to balance the firmware for the bidirectional properties we have, since Juon-san seems to mirror me in that regard. I remember her showing signs of headaches when I saw her last in that other lab, and I believe she was having the same type of problem as me only in reverse. The question I had when I woke up today was, if they redesigned my implants, why wouldn't they have redesigned the chip to HANDLE those implants? So I dug through my father's records and found that they did. It's just the firmware that's off."

"That's super interesting, and a little scary, Haku-chin your parents are totally nutkins." Miku said shaking her head, her twintails all askew from falling asleep with them up. Luka turned to a table to find a brush they'd brought down and began taking the petite girl's light blue strands out of their hair ties. "But how does that help us now? So you have a Viroid Chip instead of a Vocaloid Chip. How is that useful to us?"

"Because now we know that I was actually designed to do what I'm doing." Haku said patiently, not showing any sign of annoyance at their being slow to grasp it. "Until now we were assuming the danger was that if we flashed a Vocaloid Chip with programming it wasn't designed for it could wreck everything in my head. But now we know that I was intentionally built for this and it gives us a solid baseline to work from." She tabbed on the computer again and Luka watched over Miku's shoulder as she ran the brush gently through her hair. "My coding has always been more complex than yours, but that's the reason why. Your dad's baseline code is still there, it's just augmented by the Viroid coding. It works in tandem, two sides, both part of me, like in my dream. They have to be balanced, and they aren't, that's all."

"'Viroid' sounds kinda ominous." Miku said staring at the screen. "But it sounds like we have a more solid understanding now at least."

"More than that," Haku said switching back over to the diagnostic widow. "I think my parents knew that my programming wasn't complete and were still working on it, because it seems like it was gated before. Whatever Juon-san did to me when she attacked me in that alley that time broke the restrictions, and that's why I began to develop the Viroid abilities. As with any Vocaloid the body takes time to adjust to the cybernetics, and the nantites take time to adapt to the host. So I've made a test compile script, kind of like the one I made before to make sure my code was good before I applied changes. But this script will fail to compile every time unless certain factors aren't present."

"What factors?" Luka asked, finishing with Miku's hair and handing her back her hair clips.

"That's what we need to find out." Haku said gesturing at the screen. "We need to put me into a diagnostic cycle and dump my programming. That way we'll be able to see all the errors I'm throwing and what conflicts are cropping up. Then we can program the script to not allow the code to compile if it detects those conflicts, and use the copy of my code as a sort of virtual test me, alter it as we need to, then run the script."

"That way we'll know when we've got it because it won't error?' Miku asked.

"Isn't that what a compile test does anyway?" Luka asked a little confused. "Stops it if there's errors?"

"Well yes, but in certain situations, especially with embedded code or looping programs, you can end up with program conflicts that aren't actually errors, and that's what I think is going on. We just have to isolate what conflict is causing the error, then tell the script to outright fail the compile if the conflict is present even if there aren't any errors."

"Wouldn't your parents have done that?" Miku asked, wrinkling her nose. "That seems… sloppy of them."

Haku shrugged again and tilted her head back, "Could have been an unforeseen problem, a conflict loop that popped up later, it's not always possible to predict everything ahead of time. If I had to guess I'd say my code was still an ongoing process they intended to monitor and iron out glitches as they popped up. I don't think they thought I'd get away from them and discover what I was and refuse to come home; they did try to recall me after all. I really can't say for sure. Maybe we'll find out some day."

"For now let's just fix you, I'd be happy with with that." Luka said, and they all agreed.

Putting Haku into a diagnostic cycle and dumping her code was easy enough with her command word and a cable to connect her to the laptop. Once that was done and they woke her up again they backed that code up and set to work going over it. With Haku's knowledge dumped into their heads on programming and her tutelage in learning to use it Miku and Luka kept up well with it as they went over it but still felt a little out of depth when it came to altering it. They ran the raw dump through Haku's script before they started making changes to find the errors and started going over the lines of code after that, taking it a section at a time to analyze it. They had to study the hardware schematics as they went and work out what each line did, and Haku used the opportunity to drill the other two in programming even further so they could get used to reading the raw code since she herself had already been through all three of their programming a number of times and knew what most of it looked like. It was a long and grueling afternoon's work but they still enjoyed spending it with their exotic beauty having one of her rare lucid moments, but it didn't last. They had just found the algorithms that were conflicting when Haku put her hands to her face and moaned in pain. They'd been working for a couple of hours straight and Miku and Luka immediately jumped up to get her comfortable again. They leaned her chair back and put a cool cloth on her head for her and within minutes she was unconscious again.

After another two days of alternately working and caring for Haku as she steadily got worse Luka was faced with the reality that the end couldn't be far off. They just hadn't made enough progress fast enough even as hard as they were all working at it. That lucid afternoon was the last good one the red eyed girl had, and after that her bouts of consciousness were so few and far between they were lucky to get an hour or two out of her each day, and even then it was so pain filled for her that most of that time was taken up by taking care of her, helping her to the bathroom and getting what little bits of food in her they could. Eventually her head hurt her so bad that she couldn't see straight at all even when she was conscious, and all she could do was whimper or sob in agony while Luka or MIku held her. Once or twice she was able to focus enough to talk through some bit of coding here or there that was giving the two of them trouble but for the most part she was incoherent, clutching at them in fear as they could all tell the end was coming. Luka stopped sleeping unless Miku forced her to, staying up to work on the code or tend Haku. Her eyes burned, her body felt grainy all over, but she forced herself to keep working, sleeping only when her body literally gave out on her and she passed out where she was sitting. She was like a woman possessed, but Haku's life was literally on the line and she couldn't make herself stop.

The day came finally in which Haku just didn't wake up. Luka thought her eyes were going to melt out of her face as she forced them to open, and by the sun slanting in the window it was late evening. Realizing she'd collapsed from exhaustion nearly twelve hours before she jumped up to check on their sick love and found Haku's skin was clammy all over, her breath was shallow and ragged and pulse was steady but faint. She hadn't moved since the last time Luka had seen her, as her pillow and blanket were completely undisturbed from where she'd last tucked her in, and Luka spun around. "Miku-chin!" She wasn't used to feeling panicked, wasn't accustomed to feeling out of control, but she was close to that brink now, and the sheer fear in her voice brought Miku's head up out of a dead sleep.

"Wha-?!" The petite girl had to force her green eyes open in the same way Luka had and her gaze fell immediately on Haku. Her face twisted up in horror, "Is… Is… she…?!"

"She's alive, but she hasn't moved since yesterday! We fell asleep, but she's been unconscious for over twenty four hours now and hasn't even moved!"

Miku wiped at tears that began leaking down her cheeks as she got up to check over Haku the way Luka had, then she looked up. "How… how close are we?"

Luka cast her gaze at the laptop, her chest constricting, her breath coming in shallow pants. She was on the verge of a panic attack, she could tell she was, but that didn't help her to control it at all. "I… I don't know… I… I…!" She felt hot damp wet splotches hit her hands and looked down numbly to see tears on them. She was crying? When had she started crying? She felt arms going around her her and looked up through blurry eyes. Miku was still fighting tears too but she squeezed her, offering comfort up to Luka this time, and they leaned into the embrace.

"We can still save her. There's still a chance." Miku whispered, her chime like voice more than a little desperate, but she wasn't giving up, she never had this whole time, and she was right. Luka took comfort in the shorter girl's arms, leaning in and soaking it up. Miku always said that Luka was the strong one, that she was their rock, but she didn't feel much like that now.

"Lu… ka… chin…?" They both spun around at the faint agonized voice behind them and turned to clutch Haku's hands.

"We're here! Oh gods Haku-chin we're here!' Luka could hear the quaver in her own voice.

"Do you… know… what the… best moment… in my life… was…?" Luka shook her head as Haku gazed up at her through glassy red eyes.

"No… what?"

"The first night… I ever… saw you… on the… subway… so beautiful… like a… guardian angel… come to… save me… I love you… Luka-chin…"

Tears stung Luka's eyes so hard she had to fight to keep them open. She squeezed Haku's hand hard. "I love you Haku-chin." She choked out. "More than anything I love you!"

"Miku-chin…" Haku said, and Miku could only let out a little squeak. "I always… wanted to… tell you… I'm sorry… for that day… in the park…"

"What… what day?" Miku's voice cracked.

"When I… first kissed… Luka-chin… and you… had to… see it…"

"Don't be silly, someone had to… had to kiss someone first." Miku tried to object.

"I know… but it… was hard for you… I'm sorry… I didn't kiss you… when you first… asked me too… I love you… Miku-chin…"

"I love you Haku-chin! Oh gods I love you!" Miku moaned as she cried.

Haku sagged back in to her chair, and Luka cried out and dove forward to feel her neck. "She's…! She's not gone! Not yet!"

"I'll…!" Miku jumped up, then stopped not actuality knowing what to do.

"Call your dad! Maybe he can help us finish this code!" Luka all but shouted, her nerves feeling frayed beyond reason.

"Right!" Miku pulled her phone out of a pocket and Luka gestured wildly.

"No! The satellite earpieces!"

"Oh!" Miku squeaked, then tore out of the room to go get them.

Luka got the laptop on the right spot on the diagnostic window, looking over the code they'd been working on for days. She had to force her mind to focus, had to push away Haku's words that had sounded all too much like a deathbed goodbye. They'd been going over and over this one bit of code for most of the past day. She and Miku had ironed out all of the conflicts with Haku's script until this one final looping problem was left but neither of them had been able to solve it and Haku had gotten too sick too fast to be able to get to it. Maybe with the director's help…

"Here! I got 'em!" Miku called rushing back in. She thrust one out to Luka while trying to simultaneously put one on, with the result that she fumbled one and dropped it. They both bent at the same time to get it, then yelped in pain and grabbed their heads when their skulls cracked together. "Ow!"

"Miku-chin!" Luka put a hand to her girlfriend's shoulder to keep her in place then bent to retrieve the earpiece for herself, ignoring the throb in her scalp.

They set them to the default channel and Miku practically shouted into hers, "Daddy?! Are you there?!"

"Miku?" Came Doctor Hatsune's voice. "Are you okay?"

"Mom! Something's wrong with Haku-chin! She's dying!" Miku sobbed into the receiver.

"Dying?! What happened?!" Came the doctor's reply.

"It's her programming, we've been fighting these code conflicts with her energy draining abilities for weeks, but…" Luka had to choke back sobs of her own. "The errors have been causing her headaches for awhile, but they've been getting worse and worse. We finally started to make some progress on it after she had a breakthrough about it, but she got too sick too fast and now she's almost always unconscious and… and…"

"She's so weak…" Miku whimpered, trying to finish up the explanation. "There's not… a lot if time left…"

"If this is related to her souldrinker properties as you mentioned before," Came the deep bass voice of Director Hatsune, who had come on the line at some point during the explanation, "Then I'm not sure exactly what we can do. Your mother and I didn't have any hand in designing them, it's purely something the Yowanes invented. I can help you troubleshoot the code, but it would be theory on my part, not fact." He sounded sympathetic but realistic.

"There's no time! She's dying!" Miku shouted.

"We'll take theory, anything! Please, we can't just let her die!" Luka wasn't far from shouting herself but she didn't care right then.

"Alright, read me what you've got." He said calmly, much more calmly than they felt.

It took some time to get it all explained to him because they had to go over not only what they'd changed but why. They had to tell him about the duality of Haku's hardware, about the Viroid Chip, about needing to balance it's firmware, everything they'd discovered. When they finally had him caught up to speed they could hear an odd popping nose along the satellite link up that was too rhythmic to be interference, and Luka realized it sounded like fingertips drumming against something. He was thinking hard about it, and Luka turned to check on Haku again, smoothing her white locks and trying not to burst into tears all over again.

"I wish I could actually see the code…" He sighed heavily. "Meeting up would take more time than we have to arrange, and that's too much data to be sending back and forth easily over the link up. I don't know that I can safely resolve this conflicting loop, but I believe we can at least cancel it out."

"What do you mean, cancel it out?" Miku asked tentatively.

"A break condition. We can write the code into a separate conditional so that whenever these functions run it will check to see if both loops resolved. If they do, then nothing additional happens, but if they don't and one loop gets stuck it will exit them so nothing conflicts."

"That's… that's good though, isn't it?" Luka asked, trying not to sound too hopeful, not yet.

"Well, perhaps. It will mean failed operations any time the loops run and the new check has to abort them, so Haku could find herself with odd side effects now and again until she fixes it, but at least it will resolve the last bit of the conflict you're having now right now." He told them, outlining what could happen.

"Thwarting the larger problem with a smaller one that will give her the time she needs to fix it later." Luka breathed, finally allowing the hope to take hold within her.

"At least she'd be alive to see that later." Miku agreed wide eyed.

"Here's how to set it up." Motsu walked them through it, and Luka was glad he did because it was still too advanced for them. She could follow it as he guided them in it but it was nothing she would have thought to do on her own for all that she and Miku had managed to squash all the other bugs by themselves. This was the sort of creative work around you came up with through experience, it wasn't knowledge you could just download. It was relatively quick to set up, and when they finished and ran it through the script to check it, holding their breaths in anticipation, it cleared with no errors or conflicts. Miku let out a shout of delight and pointed at the screen.

"It cleared! We can do it now!"

Luka saved the changes they'd made to a separate file, then shifted the laptop closer to the chair while Miku gently tilted Haku's head to the side and pulled the epidermal plug free of the port in the back of her neck. Luka plugged in the cable to connect their snowy angel to the laptop and and the diagnostic software lit up with information about the 'connected device.' Her mind screamed internally 'SHE'S NOT A DEVICE SHE'S MY ANGEL!' but she was too busy to actually shout it, and a dim part of her somewhere in the back of her mind was glad that she wasn't linked with Miku right then. Not only would the other girl have heard that they would likely also have been reflecting back and feeding off of each other's emotional state and they were both harried enough as it was. "She's connected, Director! How do I initiate the flash?"

"There's an option in the programming drop down. As long as everything checked out okay, then you should be fine." He said, but he didn't sound completely certain. He wouldn't though, seeing as how he had no way to verify what they'd done, had no way to look over the code, and even then a flash was a dangerous thing, as Haku herself had pointed out the other day. Luka found the option, hovered the mouse over it for a moment, then in spite of everything, she hesitated. She lifted her eyes to meet Miku's, and a moment passed between them.

"If… if this doesn't work… if we messed up somewhere… this will… WE will… kill her…" She choked out.

They stared at each other for another heavy moment and Miku reached out to put a hand to Luka's arm. "If we don't…" she whispered, her chime heavy with a mix of both hope and sorrow. "If we don't… she'll die anyway… and we will have killed her by inaction then, ne? This is her only chance… if we don't give it to her, we've killed her anyway…" Luka swallowed hard and squeezed her eyes shut. She was so sick of these stupid tears leaking down her cheeks! Then she felt Miku's hand cover hers on the mouse and she opened her eyes to look up once more. Miku smiled tremulously at her. "Together." She said intently. "We'll give her her chance together."

Luka nodded gratefully, hating that she was run so ragged, but… they turned their gazes down to the mouse, to the laptop screen. In that moment there was no need for a word, no need for a signal, they were creatures of instinct and emotion. There were plenty of emotions flying around, and all they needed now was their instinct, which surged up within them. Their fingers contracted at the same instant, the mouse clicked, the flash option was pressed, and a progress bar popped up. It seemed… anticlimactic somehow, to represent their angel's life or death with something so simple and callous as a progress bar. They watched intently in silence, wide eyed, scarcely even breathing. It was a tense few moments and Luka thought she might explode with impatience. Then the progress bar froze. Luka felt like her heart dropped into her stomach and she let out a strangled noise.

Apparently Miku was just as incensed by this. "DADDY! The progress bar froze! It's not moving! It's like two thirds of the way in and it's not moving!"

"Just give it time, daughter. It's not just uploading files, it's rewriting firmware. It might stutter and stop, that's normal."

"Hgnnnnnnnnnnnnn!" Miku bent at the waist and stomped her foot impatiently. It would have been adorable if Luka wasn't so freaked out she was ready to do the same.

The progress bar seemed to take an eternity to start moving again, but it did and they both let out gasps of relief. Just as the director said it might it continued to start and stop as it progressed, and the further it progressed the longer and more often it seemed to pause for. Miku was holding on to the arm of the chair and bending at the middle up and down so impatiently she was bouncing in place, her light blue twintails flailing behind her, and Luka reached over to put an arm around her waist. The petite girl threw herself into her arms and Luka squeezed her tight and she felt Miku's hands tangle up in the fake cloth of her nanite clothing and clutch hard, and they held fast to each other as they watched the bar crawl forward painfully slowly. Finally, at long last, after three or four eons had passed, the progress bar filled and a message on the screen popped up that said 'Complete.' Their breaths caught, they turned to look at their sleeping beauty, and for a moment that seemed to stretch out longer than the entire progress bar had they watched with every nerve inside them on fire. A moment that lasted an eternity, and on either side of that eternity, light or darkness. Then Haku's red eyes snapped open and she let out a loud breath. "Firmware flash complete. Update accepted. Rewriting protocols."

"Haku-chin!" Luka and Miku both cried at the same time and dove for her side, reaching out to touch their beautifully exotic angel.

"Haku-chin you're okay! You're really okay!" Miku began to cry, but it was an emotional release sort of cry, and Luka wept right along with her.

"Haku-chin…!" Luka breathed between sobs.

Haku remained perfectly still for a long few moments as her processor apparently adapted the driver changes they'd made then she finally looked up, blinked several times, then sat her chair upright and looked from one of them to the other. "The pain… is gone…" She said wonderingly, and Luka and Miku shifted themselves around so they were against either of her sides, squeezing into the chair with her and clutching at her as they sobbed in sheer relief. Haku smiled down at them and wrapped an arm around either of their heads and shoulders. "You saved me… you saved my life… thank you… thank you both… I love you." All they could do was mutter incoherently as they clutched her, but Haku reached out with her cybermind for connection, and they all linked eagerly, and for a long time they simply lay there in the chair holding each other, crying in relief, and basking in that golden glow of love.

… … … … …

"Let me see if I've got this straight…" The man behind the desk said in a voice so carefully neutral and masked of any emotion that Sarge had to school his own features lest he show any outward signs of concern. "For the past six weeks and four days you have been chasing three girls around the city trying to take them into custody for 'the safety of the nation' expending time, manpower, and resources in the process, you refuse to document in your reports what that reason is… and now you want my help?"

Sarge swallowed and was thankful for his years of military training that kept his feet firmly in place and his body in a rigid stance at attention before the desk. "I believe robotics division under your command has developed a device that will allow me to succeed in spite of my previous failures, General Akita."

The man with general stripes on his uniform was silent for a long moment or two before leaning back in his chair almost casually, but even as he laced his fingers together with his elbows braced on the arms of the chair he looked anything but relaxed. Quite the opposite, Sarge knew full well the man had far more combat experience than he himself had, and was always on the verge of using it. "The last several times I have called on you and your department," He said, and his smooth neutral tenor might as well have been crackling with how icy it was. "You've turned me me away. There always seems to be some reason or excuse why it's not a good time. Your facility is undergoing maintenance, or your best people are out on assignment, or you're transporting supplies…" He raised an eyebrow that made Sarge actually narrow one eye in concern. "Yet you took my daughter for your work, and you seem freely willing and able to look into my affairs, so I ask you. If I help you, are you going to cooperate with me? Will you tell me why it is you're chasing three idols around the city, and what your cybernetics division has been doing? Will you tell me what has become of my terminally ill child?"

That wasn't ideal, in fact that was about the last thing he wanted, but… well what choice did he have? If he didn't make some sort of progress soon then questions were going to start getting asked. Uncomfortable questions that he wasn't prepared to answer. Wouldn't it be better to duck his head to this one general than to have to give up his commission a second time? No, he couldn't do that, not when he was so close to getting everything he wanted. He put on the most ingratiating smile he could. "Of course! Minor administrative problems I assure you! I've never been much of a paper pusher you see. But if you can agree to the trade, it will benefit us both."

With a long look at the big man the general finally nodded. "Very well. I will let you use the Vibration Plating, but I want you to keep in mind one thing."

"Of course! Anything!"

"Everything done or developed in or by any of my personnel or facilities is classified at the highest level. I do not take lightly the duty I have and will not suffer any exposure of any of them in any way or in any form. I will give you this one and only warning; Should you bring any undue attention down on me I will see to it that you are… permanently… dismissed… clear?"

Sarge couldn't stop a a little flinch at the way the shorter man delivered those words. "Uhhh… yes. Yes of course, General Akita! I understand perfectly."

"Good." He pushed his chair back up to his desk and turned his gaze back to some paperwork he had sitting there. "I will have the tech brought to your faculty, and you may expect me to call on you soon as well. Dismissed."


	35. Vocaloid Academy Chapter 35

The stars glittered overhead like a thousand tiny sparkling diamonds on a vast field of pitch black velvet, and Haku breathed deeply in the crisp night air. It was chilly but not outright cold, the final vestiges of winter finally giving way to the days just prior to spring, and with it came the promise of new life, and perhaps, new hope. She reached a hand up above her as she lay on her back in the grass of the park, almost feeling as though she could touch them if she stretched far enough, letting her hand simply hover in the air as she gazed up at the majesty of the night sky. A few trees at the edges of her vision reached up along with her, as though they too were trying to touch the stars, and she didn't blame them for it one bit.

"You're feeling awfully poetic tonight aren't you Haku-chin?" She could feel her girlfriend's amusement along the link even as she heard Luka giggle at her from her left side. The pink haired beauty could of course hear her silent musings down their connection, as could Miku on her right side. "I never knew you had the heart of a poet to go with your introspective genius intellect."

"I knew!" Miku said, stretching her hand up toward the sky as well. "She always has some clever quip or witty retort on the tip of her tongue, she's just good about timing them is all."

"You don't need to tell me, I've been on the receiving end of those little barbs." Luka smiled faintly, a feeling of contentment washing out from her to the other two.

"You're sure you modified your nanites, Haku-chin?" Miku asked for about the hundredth time, dropping her arm back to her side in the grass.

"I'm sure." Haku replied, letting her own arm lower as well. She sought out the hands of her two loves on either side and found them, catching them up in hers and trading squeezes with them.

"Sorry." Miku said, also for the hundredth time. "I just don't want a repeat of that dart incident whenever the government guys show up tonight."

"It's not so much a modification of my nanites as it is the configuration they operate on." She told her other girlfriend. "There isn't anything to worry about."

"Is it like how your energy draining abilities work?" Luka asked curiously. "I never really did understand how you could drain power from that armored transport. Isn't that a ton of power? How is it it didn't fry you?"

"No that's different, but I could have drained a fleet of those transports." She said, and she could feel the incredulity coming from them.

"How?!" Miku demanded.

"Well…" Haku began, still gazing at the stars. "It took me a little while to understand it, studying my construction documents I have from my father's lab, but basically it's a matter of internal capacity."

"You mean how much power your V-Core has?" Luka asked.

Haku shook her head at that. "No, the V-Core isn't a capacitor, it's a generator. It's my nanites that hold the power." That just confused them more she could feel, so she tilted her head. "How about this. What's the biggest possible machine you can think of that puts out the most power you can imagine?"

They thought about it a minute then Miku said tentatively, "An old style nuclear reactor? Like the ones they used to use before they had the fusion reactors? You know, from like a hundred years ago or whatever it was when they stopped making really nice cars and just started mass producing those cruddy electric zippo things for the betterment of the environment." She made a face.

"Or the fusion reactors themselves." Luka put in. "Don't those put out more power than the old nuclear silos?"

"Hmmm… if I remember correctly they both put out about the same amount of power." She told them.

Miku made a snort of disbelief. "'If' she remembers. Ha!"

"Hey I forget things sometimes too." Haku told her, turning her head away from the stars finally to level a look at the petite girl.

"I'll believe that when I see it." Luka rolled her eyes. Haku might have been annoyed but she could feel the playfulness from both of them.

"Either way," She went on, giving them each a stern look which just earned her more giggles from them. "They could produce a little over five hundred megawatts of power."

Miku whistled, "That's a lot of power!" She said, impressed by the number, then stopped to think for a second and made a face. "... How much power is that?"

"Well, think of a light bulb." Haku said.

"Like an LED strip?" Miku asked curiously, leaning up on an elbow to look at them.

"No, I mean an actual light bulb. The kind made of glass with an element inside?" She told her.

The petite girl made a face. "I haven't seen those except in pictures. Sooooooooo 2020!"

"I think they actually stopped using them closer to the year 2050." Luka said thoughtfully.

"Still ancient!" Miku said insistently, waving a hand in the air.

"Well one of those old light bulbs used between sixty and one hundred watts of power." Haku told her. "Just one light bulb. So if one megawatt is a million watts, five hundred megawatts is five hundred million watts, which would power five million of the hundred watt bulbs."

Miku stared at her for a long moment as she tried to imagine five million light bulbs, a really goofy mental image coming down the link of an entire island literally covered in them. From Haku's other side Luka spoke up. "How does that translate to your energy draining abilities?"

"Every one of our nanites has a power buffer of about a milliwatt." Haku said, shifting her head to look at Luka.

The math was easy and Luka's eyes widened in surprise. "You said before you had about twenty trillion nanites!" Haku nodded at that and smiled as she could practicality see the orders of magnitude conversion mounting in her idol's mind. "Then you could hold something like twenty thousand megawatts!"

"Or twenty gigawatts, more accurately." Haku couldn't help a giggle.

"You could suck like four hundred reactors dry!" Miku exclaimed.

"Well, no not quite." Haku replied with a gesture of one arm. "Each nanite has to maintain a small charge to power itself for it's own tasks, which it usually takes from the V-Core, receiving a small bit of power as it passes through the magnetic field around the core while floating along in our blood stream. Because they don't stop to charge, just pick it up as they go, they tend to have a partial capacity at any given time, so I could probably only hold around a third what you're thinking."

"Oh is that all? Only a hundred reactors?" Miku rolled her eyes as Luka had earlier.

"No wonder the government wants you so badly." Luka tapped a finger to her chin thoughtfully. "You're both a cyber weapon and a living power capacitor."

"Speaking of which, when are they going to get here?!" Miku asked plaintively. "Stargazing is fun and all but all the romance is like totally thrashed by the fact that we're waiting on a bunch of goons to just notice us and come out of hiding!" She shook her head, her light blue twintails bobbing behind her. They weren't disguised at all, and after months of hiding it felt odd to be out in the open like this, but they were tired of hiding and it felt like the right time to do something about it. "I swear they did a better job happening across us on accident when we didn't want them to than when we're trying to be noticed! What's a girl gotta do for a little attention? Do we really have to find them anyway?! That Sarge guy is totes nutkins and I don't really see why we can't just-"

"Miku-chin kiss me." Haku interrupted her tirade and the pretty light blue haired girl paused and blinked at her.

"H-Here? N-Now?" Her green eyes darted about; there weren't a ton of people in the park this time of evening but there were still enough to be seen. It was a nice night for a walk amongst the greenery.

"Here. Now." Haku repeated in her silkiest smoothest voice she could manage, batting her red eyes up at the shorter girl from her position cushioned against the grassy floor of the park.

"What, you don't want a kiss?" Luka asked smiling that small private smile of hers.

"N-No! I mean, yes! I mean… aaaahhh it's so embarrassing when you just say it like that!" Miku squirmed about beside her but Haku just batted her eyes up at her again. "... jeez!" Miku sighed and leaned down over Haku for the kiss, her light blue strands framing their faces as their soft lips met. Haku positively revelled in the feel of her girlfriend's lips against hers, soaked up every moment of the love and the feelings both physical and emotional in it. She'd always enjoyed kissing them both, passionate embraces being one of the things she liked most, but ever since they'd managed to fix her code and save her from her cybernetic implants killing her she'd exulted in it all the more. When Miku pulled away panting both of their eyes were half lidded and Miku had her tongue out slightly, but Haku got no reprieve as a moment later pink locks replaced blue and she felt Luka's mouth capture her own. The could both feel how much it affected her through their link of course, each feeling all the intimacy from the other two feeling as well as from their own lips, and once Luka had left her breathless she pulled back just enough to nuzzle Haku's nose with her own.

"You're still all aglow, Haku-chin." Her idol told her.

"I'm just so happy to still be together." She replied, not adding 'after almost dying' but she knew they knew that.

Luka giggled then leaned back only to be tackled by Miku in turn, and the sight of her girlfriends kissing each other by light of the the moon would have been enough to inflame her passions even without being able to feel them feeling it. Well, if they weren't out in public trying to lure out a dangerous government agent at any rate. That didn't stop her from appreciating how absolutely gorgeous the two of them were though, and she finally was beginning to believe that they truly thought she was just as beautiful as them. She wasn't sure she agreed yet, but she was starting to believe they did. She gazed at them lovingly the entire time they kissed, smiling faintly to herself until they finally pulled back to gaze into each other's eyes.

"I love you Miku-chin." Luka said to the girl atop her.

"I love you Luka-chin." Miku giggled back, and it warmed Haku's heart to witness. Then she reached out and snagged the light blue haired girl by the fake material of her black nanite blouse and skirt and pulled her off the taller girl and onto her back on the grass. Miku let out a squealing giggle as she went down and Haku rolled over to lay her head on the petite girl's tummy. Luka shifted around on the other side to do the same, and Miku began running her fingers through each of their hair. "I wonder how much longer we'll have to wait." She mused.

Laying in the open in the park the way they had for hours seemed to not be working out the way they'd thought it would and abruptly Haku had a thought, tilting her head slightly to look across Miku's tummy at Luka. "Why don't you make a phone call, Luka-chin?"

"A phone call? But they'll be tacing- ah." She smiled as she understood and slid her phone out of the pocket of the right black pants that were apart of the hunter Luka look that Haku had first met her in, her nanites set up to imitate all of it down to the dark stilettoed boots and tight short sleeve shirt that had slits in the sleeves that left her shoulders bare. She pushed the button to boot her phone up then glanced up briefly. "I wonder who I should call."

Haku shrugged and looked down at herself, suddenly self conscious of her plain pants and white shirt. She liked dressing up as much as that next girl, but hadn't thought that anything fancy would be appropriate for their goals tonight so she hadn't done anything more. "Call whoever, it doesn't really matter." Even her hunters outfit had little sequins all over here and there and little beats where the slits in the shoulders were. Luka looked so beautiful in literally anything and everything she wore it just wasn't fair, but if they both really thought she was as beautiful as they were... The thought struck her though that a big part of being an idol was looking the part, and both of her girlfriends were both certainly used to being and dressing as the gorgeous girls they were while she still struggled to even consider herself an idol. She really was one though, and it had become important to her after all. Maybe… maybe she just needed help remembering it. Maybe if she had them help her in it, then dressing in pretty things would help her feel petty too…? "Miku-chin…?"

"Hmm?" Miku replied as she watched Luka tap at her phone a few times and put it to her ear.

Haku hesitated a brief moment then pushed the words out. "What's the… the cutest thing you've… ever seen me wear?'

"Ha?" Miku asked in surprise, looking down at Haku. "That's sort of a sudden question."

Luka was looking at her in surprise too and the link felt like she might have said something but at that moment the line connected and they could all clearly hear their manager's raised voice on the line. "Megurine-san?! Is that really you?! I've been trying to get ahold of you girls for weeks!"

"I know, I'm sorry Hojoto-san, some things came up." Luka replied in a soothing tone of voice.

"Things? What things?! It's only your career! Egads, it's only my career!"

"I don't know about the most cute, buuuuuuut… I always liked seeing you in that black silk skirt and blouse I gave you." She let out a soft little giggle that she covered with one hand. "Remember? The outfit with the silver rosebud and vines?"

Haku nodded and smiled. "How could I forget?"

"I always thought you looked super cute in it, and I also thought it was wildly appropriate. You had the highest potential we'd ever seen. It was like you were the rosebud, a beautiful rose we would get to watch bloom."

Blushing but smiling Haku leaned up to put a quick peck on Miku's chin. "That's really sweet." She said earning her another giggle, then with a brief instant of concentration her nanites conformed to her will and her biogel clothing seemed to morph before their eyes. Miku laughed outright as she watched Haku replicate the outfit perfectly, the same in every way except for the addition of black leg warmers. It was still a bit chilly out after all.

"That's great Haku-chin! You look so adorable in it! Just as good as I remember!" Miku gushed. Haku blushed but smiled back, then they shifted their gazes to their other girlfriend.

"I'm really sorry Hojoto-san. We're really sorry." Luka amended on the other girl's behalves. "We've had a series of really difficult events come up that we've had to deal with, like… well, like moving, and Haku-chin getting sick." She paused to listen and though Haku could still clearly clearly hear their manager's voice from Luka's phone she couldn't make out the words anymore. At least not audibly, but they could all clearly hear her through Luka's ears across their cybernetic connection.

"Oh! I see. Well that is unfortunate, I can see why you've had problems." Their manager was saying on the other end of the phone call. "Still, you could have called at least, or maybe dropped by. How is Yowane-san doing?"

"We'll do our best to do so in the future, we're very sorry." Luka's voice was smooth and pacifying and it was having the intended effect. "It was scary for a few days but she's pulled through and is doing much better now."

"Thanks to you two." Haku whispered earning her smiles from the others.

"Well that's good to hear, you wouldn't believe the amount of work offers coming her way!" Hojoto said which caused Haku's red eyes to widen in surprise and the smiles on the other girl's faces to widen considerably.

"Oh?" Luka prompted with a slightly mischievous tone in her crystal voice.

"I won't say she's as popular as you or Hatsune-san yet, but she's not far off. People have been clamoring to have her at parties or work venues or the like! Whatever that exotic mysterious air is that she's so good at it's working for her! The public just eats it up! Tell her to keep at it!"

"Oh I don't think that will be a problem." Luka giggled and Haku blushed faintly.

"Do you think she'd be interested in working a few solo jobs?" Their manager asked curiously. "I have a pile of requests here." They could hear paper rustling over the line.

Luka didn't need Haku shaking her head furiously with the link carrying her anxiety down it regarding that prospect. "Hm, I don't think so. I know as idols we all get private requests and solo offers as a matter of course, but I think we're a package deal now, Haku-chin and Miku-chin and myself. If they want her to do solo songs as part of a rotation, that might not be so bad but we'll all three go wherever the others go."

Haku breathed a little easier at that compromise which seemed to mollify their manager. She still hadn't had time to set up any of her own songs, but as long as the other two were with her she thought she could manage. Not that it would really matter until they got their current situations figured out. Still, the thought of performing awakened a desire to dance within her that had been dormant these past months while on the run. She could practically feel her feet itching at the need for it. Maybe she could dance for Luka and Miku later…

Luka talked with Hime on the phone for nearly half an hour, and Haku shifted herself around so she was laying in the grass between her lovers on her side facing the pink haired beauty with her arm over her tummy and cheek on her shoulder. Miku laid on her side as well facing the same way and pressed her body up against Haku's back and duplicated the position, one arm around her waist and her head against her shoulder. They listened to Luka and Hime discuss possible shows and general thoughts and ideas for them. Their manager seemed to think it best that they play at least a small venue somewhere sooner rather than later to keep their popularity up and the three three girls agreed, though how they were going to manage that without bringing unwanted attention down on their heads was another matter entirely. Haku supposed that was what they were there in the park tonight to try and resolve, one way or another. When they'd beaten Sarge before it had been with the admonishment that he would have to track them down all over again. She hadn't thought that she would turn around and try to draw him out as in turn, but this had to end. It had to...

"Okay Hojoto-san, we'll talk it over and let you know. Yes, soon, I promise. Have a good evening." Luka disconnected the call let her hand drop down beside her in the grass. "Not that there's much to discuss since you could both hear her through my ears, as weird as that still sometimes feels."

"So weird, but you know what else is weird too?" Miku said ponderously. "That we still have to use phones. I mean, we're futuristic cyborgs and we've discovered all these totally crazy awesome things we can do, but we haven't figured out how to jack our phone signals into our heads yet?! What's up with that?!"

Luka rolled her eyes at that, "We've had other more important matters to deal with."

"I knooooooow but I mean why couldn't we? What's stopping us?'

"In the subway that night Meiko shot me," Haku said slowly as she considered it, "Ia-chan said she was trying to call for backup but had no reception." The other two blinked at her curiously and she added, "She never had a phone out when she said it."

Surprise dawned in their eyes as they understood the implications. "Maybe they already can." Luka said as she thought back on past encounters. "I don't think I've ever seen either of them use a phone. That government doctor might have built that into them from the start."

"We'll have to ask them about it later!" Miku giggled and Haku nodded thoughtfully. She didn't see why they shouldn't be able to do the same things. Infact she didn't see why they shouldn't be able to do basically everything with their own heads all the time. They were cyborgs afterall, what use did they really have for, well, any of those kinds of devices? Computers, laptops, tablets, phones, transmitters, Bluetooth devices, WiFi connectors… there was literally nothing any of those devices could do that they themselves weren't capable of.

The others caught her musings on this of course and Luka glanced over at her. "It's still just so weird to think of us like that. Like we're pieces of technology. But I think I'm starting to finally get used to it, with how a amazing you make it all seem, Haku-chin."

"It definitely took some time before I could stop thinking of myself like I was some kind of robot." Miku agreed quietly. "But you're right, it's getting easier. Now it's more like a robot wrapped in a girl's skin."

"No." Haku said gently. "A girl with some tech making her even more wonderful than she already was before."

They stared at her a moment then Luka leaned over to brush her lips across Haku's cheek while Miku stretched her neck down to kiss her head. "You really are feeling poetic tonight aren't you." The pink haired beauty giggled.

They lay there in the grass gazing at the stars and chatting idly for so long that Haku completely managed to forget that they were being affectionate in public. She was alive, and with the women she loved so much, and that was all that mattered to her right then. Time ticked slowly by and she was aware of each and every passing minute thanks to her internal cyber systems, and she treasured each and every one spent with the two beautiful women with her. It was the sort of time you wished would last forever, the sort that always ended far to soon. This one ended with the loud whirring of hydraulics breaking over the quiet of the night park. Haku wasn't the only one of them to sigh regretfully as they got to their feet.

The hulking mechanical thing that stomped into the park on heavy mechanical legs seemed like an odd kind of robot at first until it drew close enough to see that it was being piloted by a person. Twice as tall as a human it seemed made of a mass of black carbon colored meshed plating fit together in a vaguely humanoid shape, though it had no head and it's legs ended in pronged struts rather than feet. The three girls tilted their heads in surprise as they watched the armored thing pull right up to them and recognized the huge burly military man at the center of the mechanical suit through a window into the cockpit. He gave them his best wicked grin as he eyed them out from the cockpit. "Well little darlins it seems the game is up. You've been so careful about avoiding attention I'm surprised you slipped up like this but it doesn't really matter. I'd have caught you one way or another in the end, and now I have the means to bring you in."

"We actually got your attention on purpose." Luka told him with all the calm collected measured tones she pulled off so well under pressure. She was as cool as a mountain glacier. "We want to discuss terms."

"Terms?!" He let out a guffaw and the armor casing he was inside shifted slightly as he bent over within laughing. "The only terms here are those of your surrender, and I'll be the one dictating them. There's no escape for you this time. This suit is a special vibration alloy that's impervious to your little energy tricks! And even if that didn't do it i have surrounded your position with snipers loaded with that serum to at least incapacitate the one of you." His booming contrabass voice changed from high mirth to low threat. "Like it or not you're coming with me."

"You think we couldn't get away from you with that hulking mass of garbage?! Puh-lease!" Miku scoffed loudly.

"You think it can?" He snarled in return.

"All we have to do is catch an elevator!" She shot back.

"Look." Haku interjected before things escalated out of hand. "We have proven we can disappear when we want, and that we can free your cyborgs. We also know that you're operating independently and where your headquarters are. We could have come knocking any time but we haven't. There's no reason to be opposing each other when we could be working together to keep people safe against what my parents have done."

"Work together?" He sneered at them. "You're even dumber than I'd thought! Do you think I care one whit what your mad parents are doing? It's the tech I want! Do you have any idea what cybernetic soldiers could mean for our country?! The battles I could instigate and then squash?! I'd be in the prime minister's office inside of a couple of years! Everyone who's ever looked down on me for my disability would pay then!"

"That's what this is all about?" Luka asked incredulously, her crystalline voice hardening like diamonds to the tone Haku associated with danger. "Some personal vendetta?" Her blue eyes turned cold and her body language screamed of inner fury held on check by her will alone, but Haku could feel it. Her girlfriend's anger coursed down their link like a dam breaking and threatened to overwhelm her. "You've made our lives miserable for months because of some personal and political agenda?"

"You don't have lives!" The big man swung his arm causing the armored limb to slash at the air. "You're dead! You died and were turned into machines! You're high tech toys and property of the government!"

"We're not property." Haku said flatly, and the anger she was feeling from both of her girlfriends down their link melded with her own, their emotions fusing together through their connected cyberminds much as they had done when they had made love while connected together. The lines between whose emotions were whose began to blur and fade in the same way they had then too, and their fury began to feed off each other and rebound back. "We're people still, with minds and feelings and beating hearts."

"You're an abomination of nature corrupted by technology fit only to serve mankind!" He roared, his booming contrabass making the window pane of his cockpit shudder. "I'm taking Yowane! If you other two dumb cunts get in the way, I'll consider you expendable!"

"Then there is no helping it." Luka's voice was even harder and lower than before, a diamond ring in the air. "You clearly can't be reasoned with… and you're a threat to the women I love."

"He'll never stop… unless… unless we stop him ourselves." Miku said quietly. The fury they were sharing became laced with a deadly intent. Some far recess of Haku's mind lurched in rebellion against that murderous feeling, but the shared rage rolled right over it, flattening it into the back of her consciousness.

"Never again." Luka said, louder now. "No one is ever taking either of them from me again!"

With a roar Sarge came at them in his hulking armor, the suit moving with surprising speed and agility as it's metal arm cut through the air at them in a wild gab. Haku ducked fluidly beneath the limb even as Luka and Miku spun away to either side in elegant twists. Their last encounter with the giant military man had been a graceless brawl, but they'd each had time to think on his tactics since then and had decided together that the best way if it came to a fight again was to rely on their dancing abilities. Counter brute force with agile twists and spins. He only had one side of his body that could deflect their sonic energy, the other side was vulnerable, and they were three against one. They hadn't known he would show up in an armored suit capable of the same sort of deflecting technology as his cybernetic limbs were, and the truth of that was proven the moment Luka let out a low pitched wave of sound which broke over him like an ocean wave without so much as giving him pause. His limbs were like lightning whipping through the air trying to catch them and they spun and ducked and pirouetted for all they were worth, trying different frequencies of sound waves to damage the armor, but neither high notes or low or anything in between so much as dented it.

"Give up!" He shouted furiously as he lunged in another grab, coming within centimeters of catching Miku's leg as she turned an elegant backflip out of reach. "This only ends one way!"

He was a combat veteran of countless fights with military training and endurance borne of all these factors. They were dancers, lithe and fast and trained in their own form of fighting. It was anyone's guess how long it would be before this stalemate broke, but one thing was absolutely clear; sonic energy didn't work. Which meant that Luka and Miku had no weapon against this tech. But Haku did. The question was… did she dare use it? She had been too afraid of the headaches coming back to so much as think about her energy draining abilities since her girlfriends had saved her, but there didn't seem any other way. He had threatened to hurt the women she loved more than life itself, and she would do anything to stop that. She waited until he swung hard and fast af Luka, who read her intent and drew his attention the opposite direction from her, then she sprang up onto his back. An instant of physical contact was all she needed, and she grabbed ahold of the plating, focused on the need and…! Red letters sprang up across her vision, an error message seared across her eyes. " _Operation failure, unable to call proper variables, command aborted._ " Her eyes widened in shock at this new error she'd thrown. There was no pain, just that nothing happened, and she had only a moment to wonder at it before he whipped around hard. She lost her grip on the armored suit and then there was pain as she hit the ground hard a few meters away.

"Haku-chin!" Two voices cried out and a moment later they were both beside her, helping her to her feet even as the military man advanced on them.

"You're finished." He said in a low dark boom and raised an arm with a whir of hydraulics for a final blow. Haku braced herself to shove the other two out of the way, but then there was a soft thunk sound as the metal limb seemed to lock up. No, the entire suit was frozen. He seemed just as surprised as they were, and an second later the entire cockpit turned red and his expression changed from surprise to horror. "What-?!"

A high pitched shriek from inside the suit split the air and Haku had only an instant to react. Spurred by her instincts screaming at her she flung her arms out wide to shield her lovers and let out a sonic vibration from her body to protect them. Her white sound barrier sprang into existence even as the explosion split the air before them. The conclusive force of the overload was far more intense and destructive than the flack shell she'd blocked at their last fight, and she strained against it feeling as though she were being compressed on all sides in that instant, and then there was blackness. She felt like she was swimming through the darkness as she fought her way back to consciousness, registering voices above her calling her name frantically. "Haku-chin!" "Haku-chin please!" "Oh gods Haku-chin no!" "Wake up! Please wake up!"

Her red eyes popped open and to see Luka and Miku looking down at her in terror as they shook her by the shoulders. "Wha…?"

"Oh thank god!" Miku cried as they both plowed into her. She couldn't get enough air to protest as they hugged her silly, only coughed and writhed against them. When they finally pulled back she started to sit up and they tried to push her gently back down but she waved their hands away and pushed herself up anyway. Light flickering and dancing over them drew Haku's eye and she looked over their shoulders at the flaming wreckage of what had been a man in a suit a dozen meters away. There was debris everywhere as well as smoking charred chunks of unrecognizable bloody bits that made her gag before looking away. The sickly smell of burning flesh permeated the air and she leaned toward the side fighting the urge to vomit.

"The explosion knocked us flying." Luka said gently rubbing her back. "If not for your shield we'd…" She trailed off, but it was obvious.

"You dropped out of our link so abruptly when you lost consciousness we thought…" Miku was still fighting tears, and Haku felt her heart lurch at the sight of her petty girlfriend's distress. She reached out with her cybermind for connection and they accepted eagerly even as Haku wrapped her arms around Miku. The twintailed girl buried herself in the embrace and Luka enfolded them both in her own arms. They held each other for long moments just melding their emotions together, love and relief and the fear they'd felt all moving back and forth between them before the pink haired beauty pulled back and tugged at them.

"Come on, we need to get out of here." She said, and they nodded. They weren't sure why the snipers that Sarge had mentioned hadn't started shooting but they didn't want chance it. The other two helped Haku to her feet but she didn't really need it. She was shaken and perhaps a little bruised but not really hurt, and their touch changed to hand holding as they made their way out of the park. Sirens began to sound in the distance and they hurried to the spot they'd parked the behemoth of an SUV. The Karlmann's doors clicked open for them as they approached, Haku having programmed the now fully repaired and functional systems to recognize their wireless signals and open for them when they were close enough, and they piled into it. Haku took the driver seat herself and Luka slid into the back as Miku climbed up front, and a moment later they were on the road back to the Yowane Estate.

"What I want to know is what that error was you had." Luka said from the back seat.

Haku shook her head at that, not having an answer to that question. "I don't know. I've never seen it before."

"When I saw red letters in your vision in my head I was so afraid your old error had come back, but I didn't feel any pain from you and then I saw it was a different message." Miku said curiously.

"I'm not really sure but it happened when I tried to drain the power out of the armor." She thought about it for a minute as she drove along. "It was the sort of coding error that happens when a command isn't cased right, like it tried to call the wrong operation."

"Isn't that kind of error usually caused by a typo that would be caught by the compiler?" Luka asked with a slight frown.

"Most of the time, but not always. Compilers aren't perfect. We'll have to run some tests when we get home." Haku replied.

"Well I think it's so weird how that metal hulk blew up like that." Miku said, her usual bubbliness subdued by the events of the evening. "Did it malfunction or something?"

"It seemed like it did, he looked really shocked inside there right as it blew." Luka said from her seat in the back, seeming a little more relaxed now that Haku wasn't in any pain or acting like her error was any sort of danger.

"I don't think it was a malfunction." Haku said slowly, her mind replaying the events step by step as she thought them over.

"What? Why not?" Miku asked.

"Because of the way the suit froze up on him first." She replied, sort of pausing her mental playback and feeding them down the connection the moment where the armor stopped moving with that soft clunking sound. "If it had just suddenly misfired and exploded it wouldn't have frozen up like that first."

"I wonder what happened then…" Miku mused quietly, and after a moment the twintailed girl changed tracks a bit. "Do you think this means we're done? We won against the government? Can we go home now?"

"I…" Haku said hesitantly at that, feeling conflicted. They'd been making a home at her family estate these past weeks, and she'd almost started to think of it that way, but… well, Miku's parents were a part of her…

"Somehow I doubt we're finished with them." Luka said carefully, picking up on stray thoughts from both of the other two on the subject. "Meiko was right, Sarge wasn't smart enough to be pulling the strings. He was a brute, and whoever is behind it will probably try again. We'll have to think on what we do next very carefully."

They fell into an uneasy silence then and Haku did her best not to let her thoughts drift down the link to the other two but she knew it was useless. They could also just as easily tell that she didn't want to talk about it right then either though and so neither said anything for the rest of the car ride. Haku didn't know why it should bother her so much that Miku wanted to go home. Of course she wanted to go home, they'd spent months forced to live on the run. She wanted to be with her family in the house she'd always known. It was completely understandable, and yet… and yet… Haku couldn't shake the nagging feeling that she was being dismissed out of hand, like her home wasn't good enough or something. It was completely ridiculous, it wasn't like she'd even had a home to provide a couple of weeks ago, but… she'd done her best to turn it into a haven for them, a safe place to hide so they could be who they wanted to be, had told them both she wanted it to be their home too. Miku wanted to be with her family but… but wasn't Haku her family too now…? Or… or did it not count the same way…? Maybe because they weren't actually married…? Could never be married…? She felt a stab of emotional pain from the petty light blue haired girl beside her and snuck a glance at her out of the corner of her eye. Fresh tears left tracks down Miku's cheeks, and after a moment Haku realized she herself had been weeping silently the whole time too. She could hear Miku's thoughts as well as the other girl could hear Haku's own, and her green eyed lover's head seemed like a whirlwind of conflicting emotions and desires and uncertainties regarding what she'd said and what she'd felt from Haku, and it seemed clear that as she usually did the twintailed girl had spoken before she'd thought. The one thing that was for certain however was that she had meant it, that she really did want to go home to the Vocaloid Compound, and that fact alone made Haku fix her gaze ahead out the window and not say anything to try to fix things.

For Luka's part her mind was very still, and while the other two could feel emotional responses to their own emotions from her it seemed their tall idol was doing her best not to have any open thoughts about it at all. Haku doubted she didn't have an opinion on the matter, it seemed more likely that she was just schooling her thoughts to stillness to avoid complicating the situation between the others. They would all need to think on things before they said anything else, and in such a situation their direct connection was more of a hindrance than a help. Silently and without words they all agreed to disconnect and Haku felt the mental presences of her two girlfriends fade from the back of her mind. It was lonely, sharp and poignant, and she had to resist the urge to reach back out immediately. They'd spent nearly every waking moment they were together connected for the past several weeks, and it was surprising how quick and easy it had been to grow used to having them there always. But it was precisely that lack which made Haku give a small start when Miku spoke quietly without turning her head around.

"I love you more than anything, Haku-chin." Her chime like voice managed to ring even subdued as it was with her emotion, steady despite her silent tears. "More than _anything_."

Haku felt a warmth at that, that her girlfriend would volunteer this in the midst of their emotional upheaval. A spot of warmth in the cold upset. "I love you just as much." She whispered back.

They rode the rest of the way in silence, each girl preoccupied with her own thoughts now that they were private, and once the garage door was shutting behind them they got out of the massive SUV and headed inside. The smooth slightly effeminate voice drifted to them as they crossed into the hallway. "Good evening Yowane-sama, Megurine-sama, Hatsune-sama. Your last departure was seven hours fifty-two minutes twenty-seven seconds ago. Welcome home."

"Thank you Vy." Haku replied politely even as the welcome served to underscore their current issue.

It was late now and they typically took a bath together before bed but as they reached the main entry hall voices drifted out to them from the lounge through a slightly open door just off the hall.

"So what you're saying is that you like me but you don't know if you like me like that." Meiko's voice, flat and somewhat annoyed.

"I said it feels like you're forcing the chemistry and I don't want you to feel like we have to be together just because of what we've been through these past months with each other." Ia replied, her voice subdued but surprisingly unwavering. "I can't tell if you're interested in me for me or because you feel you have to protect me."

"Isn't that what couples do? Protect each other?" Meiko demanded.

"Friends do that too. Family does that too. I'm just saying I can't tell-"

"Fine, I get it." Meiko cut her off. There was a cry of protest from Ia and the three three girls in the hall jumped back as the door banged open and Meiko stormed out. She paused for only a brief moment when she saw them and Haku and Miku blushed furiously at the accidental intrusion of privacy, but the short haired girl didn't slow her stride too much as she turned wordlessly to the front door and slammed it behind herself. When the echo of the bang faded all they could hear were the soft sobs of the pale haired girl from inside the lounge, and they all hesitated a moment unsure if they should intrude or not. Finally Haku turned and went in, and the others followed.

Ia looked up from where she'd plopped onto the couch at their entrance with a sniffle and immediately began wiping at her eyes. "Oh! I'm sorry! I… I didn't realize you were back…"

"It's okay, we're the ones sorry for accidentally intruding." Haku said as she took a seat across from the pale haired girl in the same chair she'd used when her headaches had been too bad to move. Luka leaned against one arm of the chair while Miku perched on the other.

"Don't be silly, it's your house." Ia replied, wiping her tear dampened hands on her blue jeans, looking for a moment like she was trying to avoid staining her loose white blouse before wrinkling her face into a wry expression. Nanite generated clothes didn't have such considerations. She paused for a moment there, just staring down at her hands, then in a quiet voice asked, "Can I… ask you three… a personal question?"

'Sure." Luka said for them.

Without looking up, her voice getting even softer, Ia asked carefully, "How did you… come to really know… that the others loved you?" The words were hesitant, halting, but sincere. "I mean, anyone can... say the words… but how did you really know… or believe…?"

Silence stretched for a few moments before Luka spoke up. "Without being able to read minds it's a leap of faith. Ultimately you believe because you want to, and have to trust them not to lie to you."

"Doesn't that… leave you open to being hurt?" Ia asked tremulously.

"Yes, but if the love is there, you have to trust them to tell you the truth." It was a similar sentiment that the pink haired beauty had told Haku so long ago when she'd asked a similar question.

"I still have a hard time believing it." Haku told her, and that brought Ia's gaze up at last with a look of surprise.

"Really?" She glanced between the three girls before looking back. "But you're so perfect together! It's like you three belong together! Anyone could see it!"

They blushed and Haku tilted her head a bit. "For me it's that I have a hard time feeling like I deserve them. It sometimes seems like there's been some mistake and that any minute they're going to realize they picked up someone plain and unworthy of them."

Ia's eyes widened even further. "You are not plain, Haku-chan!"

Haku blushed more deeply but Luka giggled. "That's what we keep telling her."

"And I keep having to trust them." Haku added.

Ia was nodding slightly to this when Miku finally spoke up for the first time, her chime like voice holding an introspective quality that said she was talking as much to herself and to her girlfriends as she was to Ia. "I think what it comes down to is a balancing act. If you care for someone enough you have to decide what parts of yourself you're willing to give up for them, and what parts in them you need in return, and they have to do the same. Love, real true love, is a miracle, but I don't think it's enough by itself. You have to find that balance, that compromise, and it takes everyone involved to find it."

Haku and Luka both stared at the twintailed girl. Miku was so naturally bubbly and bouncy it was easy to forget that she had a depth of insight to her far deeper than was apparent. Ia's next question brought their heads around as she asked in a scared little voice, "What if… what if you can't… find that balance…?"

"It's very sad when that happens…" Luka said gently, "But it does happen." She didn't say anything else, she didn't have to. The look on Ia's face said she understood, and she dropped her eyes back to her lap.

"Thank you… for talking with me…" She said hollowly, "but if you don't mind I'd… like to be alone for awhile…"

With nods of understanding the three idols stood and left the pale haired girl alone in the lounge, Haku pulling the door closed behind them. They went upstairs and took their bath, cleaning themselves up in silence, then afterwards they padded back down the hall barefoot to the room they shared. They brushed each other's hair out, also in silence as each girl worked through things in her mind, then they shut the lights off, let their biogel clothing recede with their nanites back into their bodies, and lay down in bed together. Their smooth bare bodies slid together as they pulled the big fluffy blankets over themselves and they tucked Miku into the middle since it was her turn there, Luka and Haku cuddling her her between them as they lay their heads down on the pillows. Haku let her mind drift for a bit, going over the night's events in her mind over and over, then blinked in surprise when the light blue haired girl's voice came softly through the darkness.

"Haku-chin?"

"Mm?"

"If… if you want… if it's important to you… I'd live here with you." Miku said softly.

Haku was silent for a moment, blinking into the blackness of the room, then shifted so her face was over top of the petite girl's beneath her. "You don't have to decide on that right now."

"I just… I meant what I said to Ia-chan." She replied, their eyes meeting through the dark of the room. "It's a balancing act, what we'd give up for each other is important."

"Why don't you take some time and think it over. Maybe even talk to your parents about it. I'm not trying to make you pick between me and them, Miku-chin." Haku told her delicately.

"But I-" She started to object and Haku put a finger over the other girl's lips to cut her off.

"Sssh. Just think about it. Please?" She asked, and when Miku nodded in acceptance Haku leaned her head down to replace the finger on Miku's mouth with her lips. It was a sweet tender kiss, not like the fireworks in the head passionate ones they usually traded, but when she leaned back onto her pillow Miku snuggled more deeply in beside her.

"We have time to think about it anyway." Luka said, her crystalline voice flowing smoothly in the darkness. "The Vocaloid Compound is still on lock down anyway. We can afford a little bit of time to consider everything." They nodded and traded kisses with Luka too, then they held each other as they slowly drifted off to sleep in each other's arms.

… … … … …

"Sarge's office has been cleared out as ordered, General."

"Good." The general replied as he peered up at the stasis tank at the teenager with short vivid blue hair. "Did the snipers acknowledge their recall in time?"

"Yessir."

The general nodded as he peered through the glass. "Who is this, Sergeant Stone?"

Stone shifted his gaze up to the boy in the tank. "We don't know for sure, but the Doctor dubbed him KAITO. It's an acronym of some kind but I don't know what for. I could find out if you like, but he's one of the doctor's favorite test subjects because he was turned into one of those energy suckers after he was already a Vocaloid."

"You know for a fact he was one? A Vocaloid?"

"Yes General Akita. We've confirmed his hardware was designed by the Hatsunes and Yowanes." Stone said looking over the tank carefully. "It's had a profound effect on him but they're still studying how. He was nearly killed by the Hatsune girl when he turned."

He stared up at the blue haired kid for long moments considering this carefully before finally shifting to stand in front of a second tank, the lab of the Cybernetics Division his to explore now that he had taken command over from the late Sarge. The blond haired girl inside was petite with hair a much lighter shade than that of the General's sandy blond, but the resemblances in the jaw and high cheekbones were uncanny. The man reached a hand out to place on the tank, but the girl in stasis within remained asleep. "And what of my daughter?"

Stone glanced over a clipboard he'd set on an instrument tray for the briefing. "Sarge had ordered that she be outfitted with new experimental technology the doctor was working on. Doc said it wasn't ready for field testing yet, but Sarge was insistent, and well…" He trailed off, but the general didn't need further explanation. The man had been a bullheaded oxbrained lout and when he decided something that was that. He was better in the wreckage that had become of him. He deserved what he'd gotten after defying his warning and General Akita did not for one instant regret pushing the remote self destruct button.

"Then we do not know exactly what she will be capable of when she wakes up." It wasn't a question, but Stone answered it anyway.

"No sir. The Doctor thinks she'll have control of sonic waves in a different way than the Vocaloids do, so if nothing else it should prove a challenge for them."

"When will she wake up?" He asked as he gazed down as his formerly deceased offspring.

"Hmmm…." Stone ran his eyes over the clipboard once more. "No eta for sure, but within a few weeks if Doc's estimates here are correct."

Another long pause before he turned away and began banking orders. "From now on you are in command of the base itself and all operations, resource acquisitions, and personnel within, Major Stone."

"Sir! Yes sir!" Stone straightened up at attention then followed the general as he began walking out of the lab.

"We're going to bide our time until the two new units are ready, then we will begin laying plans to recapture our two wayward units as well as the three original targets, but until then we begin laying preparations. I want to expand shop, I'll be bringing my own personal R&D team so they're in house to work with the Doctor, and I want to begin going over every shred or scrap of intelligence that you've managed to gather so far on these Vocaloids as well as on the Yowanes and their Viroids. I want briefed on every plan, contingency plan, stratagem devised or theoretical, and status of every last thing in this base down to the dust particles. I want security tightened at all points and I want random drills a random number of times each day to keep them sharp. Starting right now our game has changed from action to reaction. I want plans within plans within plans, and Major." He stopped dead in the hallway and turned back with a hard look in his eyes.

"Sir?" Stone asked quietly.

"Do not make the same mistake as your predecessor."


	36. Vocaloid Academy Chapter 36

**Author's Note:** Alright guys, I'm starting to recover from my writer's block a little bit but I'm still ironing out a few things! I think the story has reached a natural sort of intermission and that was why I was having hard time coming up with more, after all I've written a full novel's worth of material! So what I'm going to do is call this the conclusion of a "part" and move on from here! This is NOT the end, but I need to prepare new plot points and start mapping out "part 2" or "volume 2" or whatever I end up calling it. So this chapter will answer a couple of final questions as well as purposely leave a few things hanging, and then next chapter will be the last final chapter in this part but will be 100% fluff for funsies (and probably be largely NSFW), and then that will be the final chapter in this set before moving on! I'm sorry it's taking so long, but I'm starting to get it together now! Thanks for everyone's continued kind words!

* * *

There was something extremely satisfying as well as hypnotic about playing musical scales, running your fingers up and down your instrument and hitting just the right pitch and note you wanted. Haku frequently found herself lost in the rhythm of the simple play exercises her girlfriends would run her through as she worked on mastering the guitar. The technical points and how tos of actually working an instrument were easy enough to download and memorize for her cybernetic systems, but the art involved in creating music, in creating the harmonies and weaving the melodies, was something you couldn't simply install, and so she relished this. So often in recent past after discovering who and what she was had she been able to simply download information and go, it was a wonderful change of pace to be able to learn something the natural way for once. Well, natural to her biological side at any rate. Luka and Miku had surprised her the day after their altercation with Sarge by presenting her with a new electric guitar, black with a single white lightning bolt slashing across it, and had begun teaching her to use it. They'd had to force her away from the laptop and her pouring over her code changes after she'd had the error from the recent chip flash, but they'd all needed a break it turned out, a return to the normalcy of just being teenage idols and regular girls.

Today she was playing for Luka who had her eyes closed with that small private smile on her face as she sat on a stool with one leg crossed over the other, listening to the simple notes Haku was producing, while Miku painted not far away. The twintailed girl had declared the empty storeroom they'd done their dance in before to be their studio, and had gone about decorating it with all manner of artistic things, and she'd even already hung several paintings up and done a couple of sculptures from various materials. Haku had absolutely zero idea where she'd gotten the easel and stack of canvases and paint set she'd produced, probably while they'd been out buying the guitar. There were a few other simple instruments around as well; a flute, a keyboard on a stand, a simple drum set. And of course they'd put up a mirror for dancing. Every night they brought Ia and Meiko in and tutored them in the ways of the Odoru no Budo, the Vocaloid's Martial Art of Dance, and most afternoons they came in here for at least an hour or so to be their creative selves.

"You're doing very well." Luka said when Haku paused in her rhythms. "You're still rushing a bit which is normal when first learning, but your movement from note to note has improved dramatically."

Haku swelled at the praise, her insides turning to butter at the kind words from the pink haired beauty, and Miku looked around from her canvas. "I thought so too! I was painting to your music Haku-chin. Look!" She rotated the easel around so they could see. It was a skyward starscape with dozens of brightly twinkling stars on a black night sky with a few trees on the edges seeming to angle up into the air like they'd seen while laying in the grass in the park, but the stars seemed to all angle across the sky in a rising diagonal pattern up and down by turns but ever upward in general. The detail was so vividly done that some of the stars seemed to sparkle at different intensities and the ever rising incline definitely gave the impression of a musical scale. The green eyed girl could play every instrument under the sun and frequently took her turn practicing or instructing Haku, but today she'd wanted to paint and it had turned out very well. Unlike most days the three of them had been in the studio from sunup, and a sudden gnawing of hunger in her tummy reminded her that it was well past lunch time.

"That's really great Miku-chin." Luka told her in tones of wonder. "Truly exceptional."

"Absolutely brilliant." Haku agreed happy to see it. "It makes me so happy to see you painting again."

"What do you mean again?" Miku asked curiously. "I never stopped. Well i mean except for when I stopped because we were on run and all that whole deal."

"No I meant since…" Haku blinked then realized she'd never told them about this and Miku might be embarrassed. They weren't connected right that moment because Haku hadn't wanted their own musical experience to affect her learning so she didn't have to worry about her thoughts straying out to them, and she bent her head over her guitar like she was inspecting it and finished with a muttered "Since… before that."

Apparently not being linked wasn't enough to hide everything. They were girlfriends after all, had spent every waking moment possible together for months, had each seen the other two at their worst and best times, had made love together and supported each other. Their bond ran so deep that they could practically read each other without the cybernetic mind link by this point, so it was no wonder that they both caught her little deception because Miku immediately blurted a demanding "Since what?!"

Haku sighed and lifted her red eyes back up to meet green. "Since I saved that picture I caught you working on that first time that you tried to throw out."

All the color drained from Miku's cheeks, making the deep dark royal blue of her nanite blouse and black skirt seem all the darker by contrast. "You…" she licked her lips. "You… saved that…?" Haku nodded slowly with an apologetic look, wiping a hand nervously on her own black skirt just beneath her dark grey blouse. It really did feel like silk… "Why?" Miku asked morbidly.

"Well… I mean... It was of me, wasn't it?" She said. "Of all three of us?"

"Well I mean!" She blurted, fumbling with the words. "Yeah but! It wasn't very nice and I-!" She bit her lip cutting off the words.

"What painting of us? I don't remember seeing anything like that." Luka asked curiously, subconsciously adjusting her own black skirt that matched the others. Her deep crimson blouse was almost black too. Surprisingly it had been Luka that had suggested they dress alike today. It was the sort of thing that would usually have come from the shorter girl, but they'd all agreed.

Miku turned her head away, her cheeks on fire, and didn't seem to want to say. After a moment Haku opened her mouth to explain, starting slowly to give the twintailed girl a chance to stop it if she wanted to, but she didn't. "Remember the day of my surprise birthday party?" Luka noded that she did and Haku went on. "I found Miku-chin in the studio you suggested. She'd been painting, and she was working on a piece that… well I think she was trying to get her emotions out."

"It had us in it?" Luka asked curiously.

"Well… I mean kind of. It had three people in it, the painting wasn't done when I walked in, but one had blue hair, and one pink, and between them a white haired warrior with a giant sword… cleaving the other two apart." Haku was surprised at the emotion that bubbled up inside her, making her voice shake slightly.

Luka's eyes widened in surprise at the description and Miku finally spoke up vehemently. "It was just cuz I was feeling like all displaced and stuff! I didn't know what to do!" She wrung her hands and looked at Haku. "I begged you not to look! I can't believe you saved it from the trash!"

"It was something you created, and it had us in it. It had meaning, I couldn't let it go to waste." Haku objected softly.

"Did you… were you feeling like Haku-chin was coming between you and I, Miku-chin?"

"No!" Came the petite girl's immediate denial, but a moment later she dropped her eyes bashfully and blushed more deeply. "... yes… I just!" She seemed torn, like she wanted to admit this but was too mortified, but in the end she succumbed to her usual flood of words. "Luka-chin when you turned eighteen and we decided… for the sake of your career… to put things on hold… that was totally all your decision! You might have been right, that the wrong person in the wrong place at the wrong time could have seen something of us that could have spelled legal disaster for you but it wasn't what I wanted! I knew even then how much I loved you and you were right across the hall every single day and it took every ounce of self control I have not to fling myself at your bedroom door every night! It was agony and I was literally counting the days until my eighteenth birthday sooooooo eagerly and then…" she trailed off and bit her lip.

"And then Haku-chin came along." Luka said softly.

Miku nodded and buried her face shamefully in her hands, her tremulous voice coming muffled through her fingers. "I didn't know at the time I was going to fall in love with Haku-chin too. I didn't know we were going to end up a three person couple. I thought I was going to lose you and all I could feel was… was jealousy. I'd almost made it! I was only weeks away from throwing myself into your arms and this wonderful exotic elegant creature swoops in and captures your heart! All I could feel was jealousy and I hated myself for that because we were all such good friends! I wanted the best for you both above all else but it was killing me! I did my best not to let it show, to bottle it deep down and step on it, but I had to do something to get it out or I was going to have a friggin melt down and explode everywhere into little tiny pieces. I thought painting would help, and then Haku-chin saw it and I almost died on the spot."

Haku had heard most of this before but now that she thought about it she didn't think Luka had. The taller girl looked at the shorter for a moment before rising from her stool and stepped over to her. Luka lifted a hand to Miku's head, running her fingers over her hair tenderly to bring her face up, and when glistening green eyes met intent blue the pink haired beauty smiled down at her. "I love you Miku-chin." She said and pressed their lips together. Miku melted into the kiss, her arms wrapping around the taller girl's waist and tilting her face up and into it while Luka encircled the petite girl's shoulders and squeezed her to her. Haku watched her girlfriends kissing passionately, soft lips against soft lips, and began to softly hum " _Aishiteru_ ," the guitar forgotten in her hands.

When they finally pulled apart to gasp for air, both with their tongues slightly out and eyes half lidded from the heat, all Miku could do was pant back up at her, "I love you Luka-chin." They seemed to take notice of her humming at last and turned to her with smiles, which only made Haku hum a little louder.

"Come on." Luka said with a feigned sigh of suffering and moved over to take Haku's guitar out of her hands to place it on it's stand. "We'd better get going, everyone will be waiting on us." She turned back to offer her hand out to Haku who took it and lifted herself up toward the taller girl and, without ceasing her humming, pressed her lips to Luka's. The pink haired beauty was a little surprised but returned the sweet kiss readily enough, and what it lacked in the passion the other two had shown it made up for in tenderness. Once done she turned to give an eagerly waiting Miku the same kiss, still humming, and as they finally left the studio Luka let out a soft giggle at her. "You really like that song don't you?"

Finally letting the tune fade from her lips Haku smiled back. "It makes me think of us, that's all."

Miku squinted a bit and tilted her head in Haku's direction, "What did you do with it anyway? The painting I mean."

"I rolled it up and put it in the back of my wardrobe at the Compound." She replied, reaching back to adjust the black edged grey bow holding her snowy cascading hair back behind her head. She didn't have to, the nanites making it up weren't going anywhere, but it was a subconscious habit that hadn't gone away yet. "It's probably still there." Miku made a face.

As they proceeded down the hall through the Yowane Estate they let their cyberminds brush, connecting together so that their minds bloomed into the back each other's heads as usual, and when they reached the entry hall they found Meiko and Ia waiting, each studiously not looking in each other's direction. When she noticed them enter Ia held up a small bag. "I uhm. Noticed you didn't break for lunch. So I made some crepes for the car ride."

Miku let out a squee and dove for the bag but Luka caught the petite girl by the back of her shirt. "She said for the ride, Miku-chin." The twintailed girl let out a whine of protest. They made their way out to the garage and piled into the massive Karlmann, Luka taking the driver seat while Miku tugged Haku up into the front passenger spot with her as their guests took the back. The engine roared to life with a thought and the pink haired beauty pulled them out into the road. They hadn't made it more than ten or twenty meters down the street before Miku turned such a piteous big green eyed look in Luka's direction that the idol signed and nodded and Miku turned excitedly toward the back, craning around the big seat to do so. Ia laughed softly and passed a crepe up for each of them and once everyone had one the twintailed girl squirmed around so she was comfy in Haku's lap and ate happily making adorable little 'nyomp' sounds with every bite. Luka nibbled on hers as she guided the hulking vehicle along but Haku set hers up on the dashboard for later. She wasn't actually hungry right then and cuddling Miku in her lap seemed like far more fun. She wrapped her arms around the petite girl's middle and laid her cheek down on her back and squeezed, and Miku giggled and squiggled in Haku's lap but didn't stop eating.

The ride out of the city was long enough to chat a bit amongst themselves but not so long as to warrant in depth conversation. Ia sat close behind Haku's seat and talked a bit while Meiko did the same with Luka, the two girls in the backseat still not really interacting with each other. Haku tried to converse with Ia but Miku noticed she wasn't eating her crepe and began feeding her little bites of her own in a teasingly playful manner, putting it to Haku's lips and then pulling it back and giggling. She blushed a little bit at such attention where others could see but Miku just giggled and Ia covered her mouth with a hand to hide a light laugh too. Haku wished that the link hadn't conveyed to her girlfriends just how much happiness it gave her to be hand fed by them because they now seemed to enjoy making a game out of it more than ever. All in all it was a sublime form of torture and she most emphatically let that feeling flow down their connection to therm. Miku just giggled again and Luka aimed one of her small private smiles their way.

Director Hatsune's instructions had been to head south out of the city until they reached the lake and then head west around it for about twenty more minutes. Once they reached what seemed an arbitrary point in the middle of nowhere Luka turned the massive SUV off the road and they began bouncing along cross country. The ride wasn't as bumpy as it might have been in a smaller vehicle with less in the way of shocks and suspension but there was still some jostling about and Miku slid about in Haku's lap purposefully making an overly dramatic show about it. At one point she bounced too high right as the car dropped and she got more height than she intended and banged her head on the roof of the Karlmann. Miku let out a squeak of surprise and pain as she came back down and her narrow bottom dug painfully in to Haku's thigh. They both moaned in pain and clutched at each other and rode the rest of the way in stillness. Eventually they came around a gap in a stand of trees and found a clearing not far from a rock face, and several familiar faces looked up at them from beside two of the large black SUVs which used to reside in the Vocaloid Compound's garage. Luka pulled in beside the other large vehicles and the five of them piled out of the Behemoth.

"My girls!" Doctor Hatsune said warmly and Haku found herself sandwiched between her girlfriends wrapped in a motherly hug. Miku let out a little hurking sound as the squeeze compressed her chest and Luka lost her breath in a whoosh but they hugged their mother figure back, or as well as they could being squished together. The Director just stood there watching, his usual impassive countenance spoiled only a tiny bit by an ever so slight crinkling at the corners of his eyes behind his glasses as he looked at the women. When Mira released the three girls at last they turned only to be glommed on to by a flying green blur.

"Ohmygods I've missed you all so much!" Gumi positively gushed as Haku worked at extricating herself from the green haired girl. "I've been stuck in a bunker with only Teto-chin for company for WEEKS! Like it's fun sometimes being by ourselves and all but she's awful at carrying on a conversation for any length of time!"

The stoic redhead stood a few steps back behind her bubbling girlfriend and just sighed and rolled her eyes. "I can hold a conversation just fine, you mean to say I don't gossip very well."

Gumi let go of Haku and stuck her tongue out at her partner. "And you need to get better at it!"

"We missed you guys too!" Miku threw an arm up into the air. "Just you wait until you hear what Haku-chin did though! Pretty soon it won't matter how far away we are from each other!"

Haku flushed a little in embarrassment and shook her head. "I'm not the only one who did something incredible…"

"Before we get to all that however." Motsu's deep bass voice reverberated from behind them, and when they turned he gestured at the goliath of a vehicle they'd arrived in and the two ex government women standing before it uncomfortably. "Shall we first address the new arrivals?"

With all eyes now on them Ia wrung her hands nervously and Meiko narrowed her eyes. The Director moved forward to place himself before them, shifting slightly so that his lab coat fell open just enough to reveal the cast he still wore on his arm. "I don't need to tell you how much trouble you've caused us, nor those you were affiliated with." He began slowly as he considered them. "We would not return you to them, but we don't know for certain what your intentions are either. Perhaps you would care to elaborate for us?"

"You mean are we going to run back and rat you out?" Meiko asked with a glare for the broad shouldered man confronting her, apparently taking offense either with his tone or his implications, or maybe both. It wasn't an easy thing, accepting a former enemy as a friend, but Haku saw now that it seemed true from both sides as well. This might be the reason why Meiko had been so on edge of late, knowing this was coming. She glanced at Ia. Well… at least one cause of it.

"I simply wish to know what you intend to do with your newfound freedom." He said in that way he had that made him sound calm yet commanding.

Ia blinked up at him in surprise as though she hadn't been expecting to be given a choice in the matter. "You mean we can… do what we want?" She ventured hesitantly. "You're not going to make us… s… serve you?"

"What do you think we are, slave drivers?!" Gumi burst out. "We're a family! We care for each other, look out for one another!" Surprisingly Teto laid a comforting hand on the green haired girl's arm and Gumi bit her lower lip.

Ia flinched and shook her head apparently at a loss for words but Meiko picked it up. "We're just not used to being given a choice. We had literally everything taken from us, our very lives forfeit for some private crusade. We just wanted to get our lives back, but…" She glanced around at all the faces looking at her. "But we can never go back, can we? If we run, they could decide to come looking for us at any moment, and it would only be a matter of time before they found us no matter how far we got."

"We can't stay in Haku-chan's house forever either." Ia added quietly. "It's not like we're... I mean you didn't…" She trailed off uncomfortably but Meiko finished for her once more.

"We're not Vocaloids, and we know you have no reason to stick your necks out for us." The short haired girl said curtly.

Several pairs of eyes narrowed, several jaws set, several mouths opened, but it was Haku's silvery voice that cut through the moment first. "That's not exactly true, is it?" Every gaze turned her way and Haku took a few steps forward, reaching a hand up to point at Meiko's chest, causing the short haired girl to blink at her. "Your power core is different, that much is certain, and I want to get a chance to look over it some more, maybe with the doctor's help." She lifted her hand to point up at the other girl's head. "But you have a Vocaloid Chip running everything, and your other implants aren't all that different from the rest of ours either. You are like a Vocaloid in most ways, close enough to perhaps just be called a different version, or a new series model. As to my house…" she gave a small shrug. "You know I wouldn't kick you out."

"Are you saying they can be trusted, Haku-chin?" Luka asked quietly when no one said anything else to that right away.

"I'm saying that we don't have a reason not to." She replied coolly, shifting her gaze to meet the eyes of everyone present one after another. "All of us, regardless of who actually built us, came from the same source, were created based on the same hardware. Some have had the good fortune of being exactly where they were needed from the start, while others of us… had to struggle to get here." She leveled a look to punctuate that point, and judging by the expressions on everyone else's faces they understood what she meant. She herself had come to them from the other side of the fence, just like Meiko and Ia were doing now. She turned to look back to the two ex government women and tilted her head a bit. "But we all have the same goals now, ne? We all have the same enemies, and similar needs in life. If you both committed to our cause, one hundred percent without question, I would sponsor your entry to the Vocaloids." Eyes widened at her and she blinked a moment and turned back to the director. "Wait… do we still do that? Or was the sponsor thing part of the old cover?"

Director Hatsune moved up beside her and peered down at her a moment before turning his gaze on the other two girls. "I believe we simply need to be careful about such things as a general policy regarding how we go about it." He said slowly as he looked at them, and Haku wasn't exactly sure what that meant as an answer to her question, but he went on. "In terms of being inundated however, I cannot think of a better word spoken in your favor. Yowane… hm. Haku has proven herself, and if she is in favor of you then I see no reason to doubt. But do not take it lightly. Once you join us, there can be no turning back."

They looked at him for a long few moments, then they shifted their gazes to look at Haku. She wasn't exactly sure what their expressions meant but they were intent and full of whatever that meaning was, and the looks in their eyes were stares of the sort that seemed to bore into her soul. Each of their eyes seemed to swirl, Meiko's getting a darker brown and Ia's turning a shade of deep lilac as they gazed at her. Finally they spoke, and surprisingly it was Ia that made the request. "Can we be singers like you?"

"Like me?" She didn't squeak it out! She didn't! Haku heard a giggle behind her and whipped her head around to look but by the time she got sight of her girlfriends both of their beautiful faces were perfectly still. Their link betrayed the pretty light blue haired girl though as an ever so slight thread of orange guilt from Miku tinged the yellow ribbons of amusement coming from both of them along their connection.

"Yes like you!" Ia said as though it were obvious, and Haku turned back around to face the two ex government women once more. "You're elegant and beautiful and so exotic, I've been a total fan of yours since that first time I saw you in the mall." She blushed furiously at the admission but no more than did Haku for hearing it. She didn't do well with compliments like this and her discomfort was mounting but Ia plowed onwards with the tone of someone who had wanted to say something for so long that finally getting to was like a dam breaking. "You saved us, you set is free. We've lived in your house, we've watched the three of you interact, and I've seen you all on stage. I feel a… a kind of kinship with you, Haku-chan. I… I want… to be more like you…" By the end she trailed off into mutters one more and as the two of them stood there blushing at each other Meiko broke the awkward moment with her usual casually blase attitude.

"Well I don't know about all that, but I do know that Luka fairly soundly kicked the stuffing out of me each time we fought and I don't like that one bit." She turned her gaze on the pink haired idol and smirked in a challenging way. "I figure joining up and training in all the same things is the best way to go about showing you up to reclaim my pride, so if I have to take on these weird creatures all masked vigilante style while maintaining the facade of a pop star then that's what I'll do!"

An odd reason to declare a rivalry in Haku's opinion but Luka just inclined her head in acceptance. "If that's what you need to motivate yourself Meiko, then I will endeavor to set the bar for you at a height that will always encourage you to grow."

Meiko blinked at her then showed her teeth in a way that might have been meant for a smile. The ribbons of yellow amusement thickened in the back of Haku's mind and she had to work at trying to keep from breaking out into laughter, and she wasn't sure if it was her own urge she was fighting or that of the other two. Director Hatsune clapped his hands together once and every eye turned to him. "It's settled then. Welcome to the Vocaloids."

"Do we get a badge or something?" Meiko asked in a tone that was probably a joke.

"No." Motsu replied then gestured behind him at the SUV he and his wife had shown up in, the back hatch thrown up into the air already and the doctor herself working at threading out wires. "But if you'll step this way I'll be happy to show you to your consolation system scan prize."

Everyone rolled their eyes at that but then those present split up into two groups. Haku followed along with Meiko and Ia to the back of Doctor Hatsune's SUV to keep a comforting presence on matters while she scanned them while the director went with the other four girls to see to the real reason they had come out to the middle of nowhere today. She could just make out the Karlmann through the trees at the distance Luka drove it out, and while she could catch occasional flashes of pink or light blue through the foliage with her own eyes and hear nothing with her own ears of their speech at this distance she could of course see and hear through both of her girlfriend's eyes and ears. It was becoming practically second nature to the three of them for their minds to separate out and process three sets of sensory inputs at a time now instead of just their own, and it no longer seemed unusual at all as she stood there watching the doctor hook up Meiko to a layout with a connecting cable even while she watched in her mind's eye the preparations Luka, Miku, and Motsu were going through.

"A lot of your hardware is obviously of different design than ours Sakine-san, but it looks like it functions the same way." Mira tapped away on the keyboard as she ran the diagnostic scan, the screen running through a read only state since Meiko wasn't actually in a diagnostic mode.

"What does that mean?" Meiko asked curiously, reaching a hand up toward the back of her neck like she wanted to feel for the cord jacked into the base of her skull, but Ia reached out to push the short haired girl's arm back down and Meiko grimaced.

"It doesn't mean anything necessarily, just that your hardware looks different that's all." The doctor turned the laptop around for a minute so they could see, the diagnostic window with Meiko's code scrolling by visible beside a little blueprint outline of some of her sonic implants.

Haku let her eye wander over the code for a minute while watching out of the eyes of the bundles of presences of her girlfriends in the back of her mind as they went about readying the massive SUV. She could see each of them through the other's eyes occasionally as well as the director and their friends. They had activated The Behemoth's nanite armor that the three of them had been working on repairing since they'd replaced the core and found that it had the same deployment nodes that the hidden wall in the Yowane Estate used. Some time with the computer files in the gargantuan vehicle had shown the logs to contain error reports of them shorting out with the V-Core from a massive external explosion, probably when Haku had destroyed the lab around it. Fixing the nodes hadn't been a huge problem since they were apart of her father's notes she had, but calibrating them was the trick and that was what they were testing now. The already angular vehicle looked even more intimidating with the dark armor coating it and she watched them setting up for the test fire.

"If it's not a big deal that we're… designed… differently…" Ia asked slowly, tripping a bit over the words that made her sound like a machine. Haku understood her friend's discomfort; she and her girlfriends had had a hard time with the same thing, feeling like they were robots, or amalgamations of nature and technology. Well… sometimes it was still hard. "If that's not a problem… what are you looking for…?"

"It's just a scan to look you over and get an idea of your regular state." Doctor Hatsune smiled that matronly smile and patted Meiko's arm. "Normally I'd like to run you through a few extra tests to see all of your capabilities, but since we're still locked out of the Compound a scan will have to. Don't worry, we just want to look you over and make sure everything is alright."

With her own eyes Haku watched Ia and Meiko nod at that, and with Luka and Miku's eyes she watched in some surprise as Director Hatsune set up a little mobile ordinance stand and lifted up to attach…. " _Is that a rocket launcher?!_ " she thought at them frantically.

Luka's emotions down the link were trepadicious but Miku's were excited as she thought back " _Oh my God it totally issssss!_ "

Haku wanted to ask more but at that moment the director shouted "Fire in the hole!" She wasn't sure why, all four girls with him were well back by that point and the rest of them were too far away to even hear him… but an instant later she didn't need her girlfriend's senses to see or hear the explosion of the missile impacting the huge SUV. Getting that in stereo from three sets of ears and eyes wasn't fun, at least not for her and apparently not for Luka either as they both shielded their eyes with a wince, but Miku let out a whooping giggle and cheer and she wasn't the only one. Haku could see Teto shaking her head at an equally enthusiastic Gumi as the blooming dust cloud began to recede. Everyone's eyes widened at the completely unscathed vehicle before them.

"Woooooooow!" Miku exclaimed throwing a fist up in the air,and Haku could feel Luka's eyes narrowing as she watched the pretty light blue haired girl in the taller idol's view. "There's not even a scratch! How'd it do that?!"

"Well we already knew it could." Luka said, shifting her gaze to the armored vehicle. "It survived Haku-chin blowing up that lab afterall. The real question is why did it take so much damage then but not now?"

"Maybe that boom was bigger?!" Miku guessed.

"Either way that's so amazing!" Gumi exclaimed. "I need one of those!"

Teto narrowed her eyes at her bubbly companion. "What use could you possibly have for one of those?!"

The green haired girl stared at the redhead for a moment then in a deadpan voice said, "Straightening you out when you get uppity."

It seemed like such a weird thing to say that Haku could feel her confusion mirrored by her girlfriends, but then they were all shocked even more when the stoic girl blushed. She didn't think she'd ever actually seen Teto actually flushed before and they all stared at her as she turned her gaze away, but her voice was as neutral as ever when she responded with a curt, "You don't need a tank for that…" Gumi just giggled and Haku wasn't sure if it was her own cheeks burning or if she was feeling it from Miku or Luka. Maybe all three.

The boom of the rocket exploding hadn't been as loud from where Haku was actually standing and Ia and Meiko hadn't done more than glance in that direction before turning their eyes back to the doctor and her work. "That's… odd." Mira muttered as she was looking over the readouts.

"What is it?" The pale haired girl asked, worry tinting her tone slightly.

"I'm not… entirely certain." The doctor replied distractedly, leaning over the laptop screen. "It seems like your power core is operating on a completely different frequency range than our V-Cores do."

Meiko grimaced at that thought. "I know, we're weaker right?" Ia clicked her tongue and Meiko glowered up at her. "I heard them talking, and there's no denying that Luka took me apart in both the two fights I had with her, or that Miku didn't have much trouble with you, Ia-tan."

"That's… true…" Ia muttered dejectedly. "We were deluding ourselves. We were never a match for them… we're inferior models…" She cast her gaze downward sadly but a moment later a shake of the head from Doctor Hatsune brought her eyes back up.

"No, I don't think that's right." She said, and tilted the screen so they could see again, but even so Haku reached out with her cybermind to connect to the laptop. It was as effortless and thoughtless as looking through a computer monitor for her now, and by the time Mira had finished rotating the laptop and pointing at the screen Haku already had the windows up in her 3D visual overlay, the elements of the user interface floating in the air to her eye. "Right here, Haku dear look at this."

Haku scrolled her 3D vision to the point in the code the older woman was pointing at and saw it. "The cycles per minute are way higher than ours." She blinked at the code and tilted her head, knowing that to the others she just looked like she was squinting at the screen. Far off in the distance another huge boom sounded and there was more cheering ringing through the back of her mind from her girlfriend's sensory inputs. She did her best to ignore them, wishing she had found some way to at least mute or dim what came through sometimes. It seemed like it should be possible, but… "I don't… this doesn't make sense. How can their cycles be so high but their actual power output be so low?"

"I don't know." The doctor answered with a shake of her head. "We'd… Have to open them up to see and… well that could be dangerous."

"I don't like the sound of that at all." Meiko said with a shake of her head.

Abruptly Haku thought she saw something in the code, a little bit of what might at some level seem like a stray bit of data to some, but it stuck out to her. She moved over to the other two girls and and reached a hand up towards Ia, then hesitated when the other girl looked concerned. "I uhm… I think I have an idea. Can I…?" She trailed off but Ia swallowed and nodded.

"Like you said… no reason not to trust each other…" The pale haired girl said, sounding far less confident than the words themselves implied because of a tremulous tone in her voice. Moving carefully as though afraid of frightening a skittish animal Haku slowly rested her hand on Ia's arm. What she had done by instinct months and months ago she did by intent this time, though now as then she let need drive her. When she had cleansed Luka and Miku of the dark touch of Juon Kiku she hadn't known everything she knew now, hadn't been aware that she was a cyborg and was using her nanites to flow out of her body and into theirs. The knowledge now didn't change anything except that she had an idea of what was going on, and she let the purpose driving her need translate through her cybernetic systems by the Vocaloid Chip in her head. Or, well, the Viroid Chip. She couldn't actually sense Ia's thoughts or emotions, or feel or see or hear through her senses the way she could with her girlfriends, but a vague sort of awareness of the other girl did begin to filter into Haku's consciousness, a kind of sense of Ia's current status as it were. Her voice brought Haku's head up as she blinked. "I can… feel… something… Haku-chan what are you doing?"

"I'm… scanning you? KInd of?" She told the pale haired girl with a tilt of her head as she let the data coming in from her nanites build into a 3D rendering in her vision, the blueprint schematics from the laptop scan the doctor had been running combining with the information she was getting on her own, and she consolidated this into a visual form in her interface overlay. When it was done she blinked at it. "That's… what is that?"

"What's what?" Mira asked curiously, and Haku turned a head to gesture at the laptop, feeding the data she'd gathered to it to add to the more mundane data the doctor had in front of her. The older woman studied it wide eyed as Haku finished piecing together her 3D model and turned it in her vision to look at it, and Doctor Hatsune whistled a low note of surprise. "This looks… like a modern revamped version of a sort of Tesla coil!"

"What's a Tesla coil?" Meiko wanted to know.

"It's a sort of theoretically infinite self contained power source that's supposed to charge itself by drawing stray electrons straight out of the air. They were originally developed for use with small machines such as cars but this… this looks far more advanced."

"I think…" Haku said as she studied it, and data began to flood passed her sight as she looked at it. "I think it's… unfinished."

"Unfinished? How so?" Mira asked as she studied her screen.

"It looks like it wasn't properly calibrated before being brought online." Haku said and gestured at the laptop screen. "Look at lines three hundred forty-seven through three hundred sixty-two." She waited while the doctor got to that part of the screen then gestured again. "The cycles are so high the rate of recharge should be high but the coils aren't making use of it. I think something is out of alignment. There's a bit of coding to stop errors from being thrown but the problem is still there."

The doctor was nodding now and scratching at one arm idly as she poured over the data."I … think we could fix that but… it would require major surgery to get at the cores…"

"I don't think-" Ia started to say carefully but Haku squeezed her arm with the hand she still had there and their eyes met once more.

"I think… I think I can fix it. Right here, right now." She told her, and Ia's eyes went wide.

"Here and now?!" She squeaked. "But…! Surgery sounds…!"

Haku shook her head. "No, not surgery. It won't hurt."

Ia swallowed hard… and nodded. "Okay… if… if it won't hurt..." Haku was elated that her friend was willing to trust her that much. She closed her eyes, which plunged her regular sight into blackness but of course she could still see her 3D overlay. She let Ia's power coil fill her mind's eye, rotating it around in her virtual workspace. She didn't do anything to the other girl just yet, simply studied the information her nanties had retrieved, were continuing to send back. Need and instinct were key to working this, but some knowledge was necessary to know what to do. The calibration seemed simple enough to her, it literally was just a factory setting which limited the maximum number of cycles per minute that the coil could even use by way of a tiny non-conductive pin to hold things at a certain point. It seemed to her like it must have been like a safety pin that was supposed to be removed before major usage of the coil in the field, but… why would they have left it there? Or not changed it to allow…? Sarge must have been pushing for speed to get them out the door, that was the only explanation Haku could think of, and even that didn't seem right. Well… it didn't seem like too big a thing to fix. The nanites could adjust and alter basic things, why not…? Ia blinked with sudden surprised startelement registering on her face before power suddenly seemed to surge up within her. The doctor couldn't feel the sonic pulse around the pale haired girl, but Haku could, and Meiko could to, output far higher than she'd ever shown before. "W-Wow!"

Haku withdrew her nanites from Ia's body before releasing her arm and turning a questioning gaze on Meiko. The short haired girl nodded and Haku repeated what she'd done, laying a hand on the girl on the back of the SUV and within moments a similar expression bloomed on Meiko's face as a surge of sonics seemed to billow up within her. "So much power…" she muttered.

"Is this… is this what you always feel like, Haku-chan?" Ia asked in awe. "Just always so… charged…?"

"If what I'm reading here is right…" the doctor interjected as she was furiously scrolling through Meiko's data following what Haku had done. "It's not quite the same." She peered at the screen, then at Haku, then at the screen again. Haku felt a little embarrassed at the scrutiny but she was pleased with herself. She'd helped her friends, and it made her happy. "Your advanced Tesla coils… or whatever we should call them, they aren't exactly Tesla anymore… they draw electrons, they don't actually contain an element. Which means that in terms of raw power output the V-Cores are better. However, it also means you recharge quicker, your cycles per minute are higher. Literally all you need is to wait a few minutes. Even if you drained your capacity to nearly empty your recovery downtime would be much less than Miku or Luka."

"It also means that they could potentially put out more total power over longer periods of time." Haku pointed out, saving the data she'd collected from the other two in her internal storage and letting her 3D interface fade away. "Endurance over raw power. So you'd be very useful in a long drawn out fight."

"I can't believe how… charged I feel." Ia murmured then her cheeks colored faintly. "I know I said that but… I mean I feel like I could take on…" she trailed off in embarrassment as the connotations began to sink in.

"An army?" Doctor Hatsune finished for her wryly and Ia nodded sheepishly. "You could. The fact is, any of you girls are fully capable of that, or leveling skyscrapers, or forcing open virtually any known security system."

"We… we really are weapons…" Ia moaned, wringing her hands.

"Vocaloids weren't originally designed to be weapons." The doctor said gently. "But what one person imagines another can repurpose."

"What was our original purpose?" Meiko asked hesitantly. Her friends had the same worries and questions she'd had when it had been her in their shoes, but Haku saw with relief that Mira just put on her kindest matronly smile and patiently explained everything from the beginning. Meiko and Ia were getting the unabridged explanation that Haku hadn't had the benefit of, having lived through discovering it, but she was glad that her trials could ease the way for the other two.

"Please daddy?! I just wanna pull the trigger! Just once!" Came a high pitched plea Haku heard through ears not her own, and she could see Miku hopping in place from foot to foot in front of her father with a look of piteous entreaty.

" _She's so good at that look…_ " Haku thought feeling her heart melt a bit at the sight of the adorable petite girl. She got a wordless feeling of agreement from Luka as she watched through the taller idol's eyes.

Owing either to years of experience dealing with it, or perhaps just to the fact of being her parent, Miku's father showed no signs of giving in to it. Haku envied his immunity; she and Luka both caved to that look every time. "This isn't a toy Miku, and we're not playing a game. This is a dangerous test with a destructive and deadly weapon."

"I saved you from a mortar shell! I think I can handle a rocket launcher!" The light blue haired girl whined.

"Haku saved me from it." Motsu corrected her. "Now please, that's enough. Stand aside, or go back."

Miku stared at her father for a long moment before letting out a huff, turning on her heel, and striding off. In her cybermind's eye through Luka's vision she could see Miku retreating back toward where she herself was with the doctor, followed a moment later by Gumi and Teto keeping a measured distance behind the fuming girl. " _He thinks I'm still a child._ " came Miku's thoughts down their link with a feeling like she was muttering to herself, though she wasn't actually saying anything aloud as she all but stomped along. " _He sees me like a helpless little girl. I'm not! I'm a world famous idol and a powerful futuristic cyborg! A cyborg_ he _made me into!_ He _did this to me and still he treats me like I'm five years old! It's not fair! It's stupid and I hate it!_ "

Haku excused herself quietly and politely from the discussion going on around her and went out to meet Miku as she ranted in her head while coming back. Well, ranted in all their heads really. Apparently the pretty light blue haired girl had been so wrapped up in her internal raving she hadn't realized Haku was approaching and she stopped dead in surprise when she reached her, blinking up at the taller snowy haired girl. "Ha-Haku-chin?" She blinked but when Haku wrapped her arms around her in a loving hug Miku reciprocated immediately, burying her face against Haku's neck. The golden glow of love pulsed between them along their cyber connection, and even though Luka wasn't right there they could feel her embrace too.

" _At least you have parents who love you._ " Haku thought at her gently, and she felt Miku nod against her. A faint pulse of guilt in herself and tinge of sadness for Haku and Luka came from the bundle of thoughts and feelings that was Miku's presence in her head and she just squeezed her girlfriend tighter. They hugged a long time before finally the feeling of needing to probably get on with things pervaded the moment and they pulled away, then blinked in surprise when Gumi's bubbly voice reached their ears and they turned to her.

"Awwwww that was sweet." She giggled. The blush that sprang up on Miku's face was a mirror of Haku's own and that only made Gumi giggle more.

"Are you going to ask her or what?" Teto let out a long suffering sigh but smiled anyway. The stoic redhead was beginning to show her emotions a little more than she used to, opening up to those closest to her.

"Ask us what?" Miku wanted to know, assuming whatever it was included them both even though Teto had said 'her' not ' them' though in truth Haku would have assumed the same.

"I wanna come see your house Haku-chan!" Gumi threw an arm up in the air much as Miku was prone to doing. "I heard it's a huge mansion and I wanna see it!"

"Heard?" Haku asked curiously, wondering who could've told her, but Miku immediately agreed on their behalf.

"Of course! You're both welcome any time! Any time at all!" The petite girl let out a little giggle and Gumi echoed it. They were both so bubbly it was almost painful at times.

The four of them rejoined the other three women as a few more explosions sounded periodically in the distance. Haku watched through Luka's eyes as she and the director continued testing and calibrating the nanite armor on the Behemoth. She was most interested in the data the onboard computer was collecting from the rockets' impacts and how the nanites were responding. She was having ideas and wanted to see the raw data… Once back with the others they found the explanation concluded and Meiko had been disconnected from the laptop and the test spot was empty. The doctor gestured at it and smiled, "Would you have a seat for me, Haku dear?"

"Me?" She asked curiously, but moved over to sit down obligingly anyway.

"I'd like to dump your logs for later so I can study your hardware and the last error you threw." She explained as she reached for the back of Haku's neck with the jack. Haku nodded and reached up with a hand to pull her cascading snowy locks forward over her opposite shoulder so the doctor could reach unobstructed. With a thought she released her security protocols for access as she felt metal sliding against metal at the base of her skull, a little shiver going up her spine as the plug connected, and she reached out to take Miku's hand. Her girlfriend had stayed beside her as she'd sat down, and they traded little reassuring smiles now as Mira began to work the laptop keyboard.

"Do you have any idea what's wrong mom?" Miku asked curiously, concern for Haku's well being seeping down the link.

"Not specifically, but I have a general inkling." The doctor replied as she tapped at the keyboard. "When your father helped you finalize that loop check he hadn't seen the hardware specs of this Viroid Chip. If we get a look at it it's possible we can come up with a better solution more tailored to the hardware."

"You're saying you can fix it?" Miku asked hopefully.

"I'm not saying we can figure out what the Yowanes did overnight, but perhaps with Haku's help and some collaboration we can puzzle it out." She glanced away from the screen for a moment to spare her daughter a smile before turning back to the laptop. They sat in silence for a few moments, Haku's gaze drifting off toward the other side of the vehicle where Gumi and Teto had wandered off to talk quietly amongst themselves. Meiko and Ia stood not far off either but they were waiting quietly and very studiously not looking at one another. She couldn't help but wonder what was going on there… "Oh? What's this?" Mira's voice brought her head back around.

"What's what?" She asked.

"Your logs are full of new data changes. Have you been altering your code again?" The doctor asked suspiciously. The last time Haku had messed with her own code had been under duress in a crisis situation, but it had been dangerous and she'd promised she wouldn't do it again.

"Not directly, I've backed everything up in stages and Miku-chin and Luka-chin are always there to help. They're getting really good at programming, practicing more and more."

"I understand all of our base functions now!" Miku said triumphantly, then giggled at the wide eyed look her mother gave her.

"Is that so." The older woman said curiously, glancing back at the screen. "What's all this then? It looks like networking and wireless signal protocols…?"

"It's an adaptive communication bridge so our wireless transmitters can operate on the same frequencies as the satellite communication networks." Haku told her, and a look of wide eyed startlement came over Doctor Hatsune's face.

"Wireless…!" She gasped. "That would mean you could connect to cell towers and literally make phone calls with your heads!"

"Cell towers, satellites, network carriers… basically anything." Haku couldn't stop a small smile of pride from spreading on her lips. "We're walking computers after all, ne? Why shouldn't we be able to do anything any other piece of technology can?"

"It's… a genius idea, Haku dear but…" the doctor trailed off as she looked over the logs.

"What's the matter mom?" Miku asked, concerned at the sudden mood change.

"It's just… morally compromising." The doctor shook her head and leveled a stern look at the girls. "You were never designed for such a thing, It's a lot of power for one person to have. I hope you've given serious thought to the moral connotations of this."

"Moral…?" Miku blinked in confusion. "It's just communication access in our heads!"

"It's more than that." Mira objected in a stern voice. "With your cybernetic abilities to access technology, this is essentially free and unfettered access to every and all linked network in the world." Her stare took on a heavy kind of glare and she made her next point with unrestrained harshness in each word. "With this kind of power you could literally shut down the entire planet with no more than a thought."

Haku had already had this realization but apparently the concept was news to Miku, the petite girl's green eyes going round as saucers in shock. Her chime like voice was extra high pitched as she stammered an objection, "That's…! That's not…! I mean, we would never…!" Still having ahold of her girlfriend's hand Haku gave it a squeeze of reassurance and she felt Miku squeeze back.

"No dear, I don't think you would." She patted Miku's arm in a comforting way, and though she still looked stern Miku visibly relaxed. "Your father and I have done everything we can to make sure we instilled strong unyielding moral fiber in you since you were a child, and we've done our best to make sure the same sort of characteristics are present in those we… work with." Her eyes flickered first over Haku, then off toward the other nearby girls and back again. "But that doesn't change the fact that just because a thing can be done doesn't mean it should be, and it's important you understand that this is the sort of power that makes people fearful. If the government finds out they'll hunt you all the harder, redouble their efforts."

"You may not have intended to design a weapon when you made the first Vocaloids," Haku said slowly, careful to keep her tone even and respectful. "But my parents did. When they… killed me…" she stumbled on the word ever so slightly and got another squeeze of the hand from Miku.

"Haku-chin…" Her girlfriend said gently, but she pressed on.

"When my parents killed me to use me as a prototype, as an experiment… designing a new weapon was exactly the purpose they had in mind. If not for my chance encounter with Luka-chin that night on the subway I might never have gotten away from them and learned what I was, learned how to be my own person." She hadn't intended to get emotional about this but she'd thought about it a lot and the feelings were intense within her. "If they'd had their way, or if the government succeeds, I lose everything I've gained. I won't just lose my freedom, I'll lose my friends, my new family, and…" she choked back a sob, not able to make herself say 'and the women I love' but the look she gave Miku was so full of intent meaning there was no way anyone could have missed it. That golden glow of love surged along their linked cyberminds from both of the other two. Luka could hear all of this through their ears of course. "I will gladly accept any power, any tool, any shield, any weapon, to make myself more capable of protecting all of that." She finished in a hushed tone, her silvery voice almost sounded haunting. Miku leaned in to squeeze Haku tightly in a hug, and she let her face bury against the other girl's neck the way they had done in reverse earlier. Miku's skin was so soft, and she smelled so lovely…

"Of course, Haku dear." She felt a pat on her arm and the two girls pulled apart to look up at the doctor again. "That's the sort of moral character I was talking about. I just want to make sure you understand the implications, that's all."

They nodded in a foreboding silence and Doctor Hatsune finished her scan and disconnected Haku from the laptop, helping her replace her epidermal plug that hid the port in the back of her back. She stood up just as Luka was pulling their huge SUV back into the clearing, the taller Idol pulling over a bit and getting out as Haku gave a flick of a wrist and toss of her head to settle her hair back behind her. She caught a moment in her head as Luka watched her do that, and a slight sort of tugging at the corner of her awareness was all the indication she had, but… " _Did… did you just record me tossing my hair back…?_ " She asked with a thought.

" _It was extremely pretty, very elegant and feminine of you._ " Came the answer from the pink haired beauty, Outwardly Luka just gave her that small private smile of hers, but beside Haku Miku let out another little giggle.

" _What? You surprise record us all the time. It's only fair._ " Haku just stared at the shorter girl. Well that was true enough… she didn't have to be so frustratingly right about it though. Miku's giggle turned into an outright laugh, either at the look on Haku's face or the feeling she got from their connection. Haku wouldn't actually stick her tongue out, but she could think it.

"I believe we've accomplished our goals for today." The Director announced as he came around from the passenger side of the great hulking vehicle. "I must say I'm surprised at the ingenuity of this armor system, when considering it's source, but no less so at you three for repairing it." He said to them, and Haku felt her insides warming at the compliment even as Miku and Luka smiled in response to the praise. "We'll take the data back to our safe house to analyze and let you know what we find. I suggest we all return to our hiding spots."

"We're going to go on a little patrol." Gumi said as everyone came in closer. "Sometimes driving around is nice, and maybe we'll catch a souldrinker or two."

Luka looked them over consideringly, and Gumi flushed a bit. She'd never entirely gotten over the fact that she was friends with the great idol Megurine Luka, nevermind that all five of them were idols now. "You've gotten stronger since we've been in hiding, I can tell! I'm so happy for you both."

Teto's head came up with a questioning look. "How can you tell? We haven't been tested recently."

Luka gave a little shrug. "It's just a feeling I get, you know how we do. You're easily A rank now, I'd bet on it."

Gumi positively beamed under the praise, and she opened her mouth to presumably let out a string of bubbly words but Teto just thanked Luka and took Gumi's hand to lead her away with a simple "We'll call you before we visit." Then led her off toward their own plain black SUV as everyone began breaking up.

Ia and Meiko approached them as they were preparing to depart, those preparations mostly involving hugs from Mira. "If you don't mind…" Meiko said tentatively, drawing everyone's eye. "We'd like to go back with Doctor and Director Hatsune, if it's alright? We have more questions we'd like to ask."

"How will you get back?" Miku asked concerned. "We only brought one car."

"We can catch a cab or something." Meiko said, not seeming overly concerned about it.

"We can issue them a car." The Director said. "If they're going to be partners they should have one anyway." There was an odd sort of tension in the air suddenly that persisted for a moment before Ia looked away. The Director hadn't meant partners like that, but…

"Do we have extra cars just around or…?" Haku asked curiously.

"We have a couple of garages." The Director answered, tilting his head curiously. "Why?"

"When they return to my house I could take them to a garage for you, if you'd like." She offered carefully, hoping that the fact that she was even volunteering would be enough to suggest a slightly delicate situation. She knew it hadn't been when he frowned though, but the doctor picked up on whatever it was and nodded for him.

"Very well Haku dear, we'll leave it to you to sort out. We'll send you an address later."

"Thank you." Haku said with a smile for her even as the director furrowed his brow at his wife. Still, he let her decision stand, perhaps sensing some feminine intuition at work beyond his understanding. Being the only man present in a group of women a large majority of the time must leave him wondering at it occasionally. At least, Haku thought he must. She knew she'd feel confounded a lot if she were surrounded by men all the time. Boys' minds just seemed to work differently, she could never tell what they were thinking. Even relatively reasonable men like Director Hatsune seemed to come completely out of left field with their thoughts or suggestions at times and it always left her baffled for a minute. " _It's like they're totally aliens sometimes._ " came a thought from Miku accompanied by a physical sensation of pressure in her chest as though she were suppressing a giggle. Haku heaved a sigh internally. Her thoughts had wandered again and of course her girlfriends had been privy to it. Her annoyance at herself just earned her amusement back from them, which just annoyed her more. She didn't know what they were so amused by, she'd caught stray thoughts from both of them before that were less then happy about their bond conveying absolutely everything. _That_ thought got their amusement to die down some! Ha!

All of this flashed through their minds with the speed of a few thoughts and none of them let any of it show on their faces while they finished saying their goodbyes and and everyone piled into their respective vehicles.


	37. Vocaloid Academy Chapter 37

**Note from the author:** Hi everyone, sorry it's taken so long to get my thoughts together! I am still plugging away at my ideas for the story, but I've been busy with school as well as trying to figure out how I want the next part to go! I'm going to split it as the end of a book here, and start part 2 soon! I also want to mention that the original title "Vocaloid Academy" was for a notion I'd had that never really panned out so I'm going to be changing the title at some point soon to reflect that. AND for a last thought, this was supposed to be a near-future SciFi story and I did a poor job of illustrating that so I'm going to be picking up with the tech aspect in the next book! I hope everyone is ready for it! Thanks all!

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"I don't see why we can't just go to the pool now!" Miku complained loudly. "It's so hot and I want to go swimming!" It wasn't actually all that hot out; spring was still asserting itself after winter had finally released it's icy grip on the world and if anything Haku would have said it was simply nice out, but her light blue twintailed girlfriend had always had the least tolerance for the weather of the three of them, so she supposed it only made sense. She turned to glance back at the shorter girl as they walked along the path behind Luka, the pinkish leaves beginning to come into view as they entered the orchard. Further back some distance out of earshot the way they had come she could see Gumi and Teto rounding a corner, but they were engaged in their own discussion, heads together as they walked.

"I thought you wanted to see the sakura trees." The taller Idol said over her shoulder. "You were all up in a fit over it last night." Luka's cascading pink locks were held back in a flowing ponytail knotted in a Chinese style Buddha Bun done up high on the back of her head, and she'd tied thin white ribbons around it just to make it look nice. She wore a rose colored short skirted short sleeved cheongsam and white leggings too that fit her like a glove and set Haku's heart to pounding every time she stared at it too long.

"That was last night when it wasn't like a thousand degrees oooooooout!" Came the answering whine. Miku flicked at one of her twintails in irritation, her hair looking the exact same as always except that she'd also gone with a Chinese look today, they all had. Each of the petite girl's side ponytails were done in Hammer Buns tied around heart shaped brooches. Her cheongsam, in the same style as Luka's, was varying shades of blue and green swirls and slashes on a white backdrop, and her leggings were a seafoam color.

"I think it's nice out." Haku put in tentatively as they reached the orchard's entrance and rounded a gap in a short stone wall. She reached up to check the chopsticks holding her Chinese hair brooch style effect in place. She couldn't see it for herself but the snowy white locks on the back of her head had been pleated to look like a rose brooch design held by crossed chopsticks that the rest of her hair swept down and away from. Her own cheongsam was black with red rose buds all over and black lacy leggings, and all three girls had found their outfit styles in a real boutique. They had bought the dresses to support the store then copied them with their nanite clothing and put the real ones away for safekeeping. The only way Haku's outfit differed was the addition of a pair of black elbow gloves she'd added because she'd come to like wearing gloves.

"You'd say that even if it was so hot out things were spontaneously catching on fire." Miku muttered plaintively. Haku just smiled at her and reached back to take the shorter girl's hand. Miku brightened up at that and squeezed it happily and they followed Luka around the wall and into the orchard. There were people everywhere all milling about doing the same thing they were here to do; appreciate the beauty of the blooming orchard. As soon add they did the green eyed girl's expression changed to awe and she let out a long woosh of air. "Aaaaaaaaaaahhh! So pretty!"

The petals of the cherry blossoms were all various shades of pinks and reds and a light breeze blowing through the branches rustled a few loose here and there and some rained down gently all around. Their bubbly girlfriend began dragging the other two around and Haku traded looks with Luka. The taller idol affected a fake long suffering sigh. "She's already forgotten about the pool. That was all it took."

Haku smiled and shook her head. "She'll remember later."

Luka's fake exasperation turned into real affection that carried down their cybermind link as the more familiar pulsing golden glow of love that came from any off them whenever they were feeling particularly passionate. "You have such a beautiful smile, Haku-chin."

Haku blushed and shifted her head a bit as though to glance away but didn't actually break eye contact with her blue eyed love. "You always… say things like that." She murmured, but it was half hearted at best.

"Because it's totally true!" Miku called back over her shoulder as she guided them between some people standing between two sakura trees, having seen Haku's face in her mind through Luka's eyes from their connection.

"I just keep hoping it'll eventually sink in if we tell you enough times." Luka said in a wry tone as they walked around the trees, coming to an edge of a sort of sharp drop off ledge on the hillside the orchard was on, the short wall even lower and narrower here to allow for a really picturesque vista of the countryside sweeping away eastward framed by the sakura trees all around them.

"I just… you both always say things about how pretty I am but I just don't see it." Haku let out a little sigh. She'd tried considering it for them, she'd thought about it, but... "I believe that you believe it, but I don't, I'm sorry."

Miku rounded on her there by the edge if the trees, "But you're so beautiful! Do you think we're lying to you or making it up or something?!" She stomped her foot on the ground. "Why would we do that?!"

"I don't think you're lying…" Haku murmured uncomfortably. "I said I thought you believed it…"

"But you'll just dismiss our opinions as invalid because you don't believe it?!" The shorter girl demanded.

Haku opened her mouth to answer… but found she had no response to that. Nothing she could think to say in reply would sound good, and she tried very hard to keep words like 'it's my body' and 'how would you know' from leaking down their mental connection to them, but judging by the way both of the gorgeous girls facing her narrowed their eyes at her she didn't manage it. The link carried everything, there was really no way to filter it. Luka sighed and shook her head. "You think we're both pretty. I can see how we look to you in your eyes." She tapped the side of her head to indicate their connection.

"Because you both are so gorgeous." Haku whispered staring at the two radiant creatures before her framed so beautifully in nature's backdrop, and even as she said it she realized how hypocritical it sounded. Why should their view of her looks be less valid than her view of theirs? She tried again. "You both know you are. You're word famous idols with years of tens of thousands of fans across the globe raving on every known form of social media about how absolutely radiant you are."

"Do you really think tens of thousands of strangers' opinions are as important or as meaningful to us as yours is?!" Miku demanded with an emphatic wave of her hand in the air.

"Well… I mean that's a lot of people all saying the same thing?" Haku was beginning to feel overwhelmed and out of her depth. Her mind was reeling as her heart and head seemed to be telling her two different things. The other two sensed the unease coming from her and Luka stepped forward and took up Haku's hands in hers.

"Come over here a minute Haku-chin, I want to show you something." The slightly taller girl led her over beside a sakura tree and turned them around so she was where Luka had been standing with her back to the low narrow wall then stepped back so they had traded places. Miku skipped over to where the pink haired beauty stood and they both looked at her. "I want to ask you to do something for me, okay?"

"What… what is it?" She replied nervously.

"You can consider it a personal favor if you want, whatever helps you actually do it," Luka's crystal voice came in a quiet gentle tone, but insistent. "but I need you to promise me that you will do it, honestly and without trying to sidestep it or get out of it."

Haku could see the request in Luka's mind already, could see the thoughts forming in her idol's head, she wasn't sure she really wanted to, but such a heavy personal request like that… "You know… I would never deny you anything, but… please… tell why you're making me do this…? Why is convincing me of this so important to you?" This wasn't the first time they had had discussions like this after all, at least of this intensity.

"I only want you…" Luka's voice was so full of caring and love it was almost a tangible feeling. "To see the way we see you. So we can all be equal in this, like in everything else we do, ne?"

"And because it's important for you to think you're pretty!" Miku gushed.

"Why is that important?" Haku asked a little annoyed. "Who cares? Tons of people aren't good looking, and even if medical science has reached a point of nearly flawless cosmetic surgery in the past hundred years people still live their lives with average looks all the time. It's okay to be less than okay looking, or big, or hunched, or anything." She had the bit between her teeth now and was all but biting off her words. "Modern medicine isn't what it used to be back when we still had to rely on primitive pharmaceuticals and scalpel surgery techniques. Humanity has evolved passed such things and since everyone can be healthy now despite whatever they look like, what does it matter?"

"It is completely okay to be chubby, or plain, or any of that, you're right." Luka said gently, and tilted her head a bit, a look on her face of such compassion it was hard for Haku to stay annoyed. "But it's also okay to be pretty."

"It matters," Miku put in with a caring, if still pointed note in her chime like voice, "because you _are_ beautiful. You denying it like you always do is no different than a fat person denying their weight, or an ugly person pretending they aren't. It's a form of self imposed body shame when there is no shame! It's okay to be fat and plain, but it's okay to be pretty too!'

Haku felt like they'd pierced her heart with their words. She had literally never seen it that way before. A form of self body shaming… for looking _good_?! It sounded absolutely ridiculous, but… it was true. "What…" she asked haltingly, knowing the answer, needing them to say it anyway. "What do you… want me to do?"

"Stand there by the tree like you are." Luka said still with that careful gentle tone. "Relax your muscles, you look so tense. Ease yourself a little bit… that's it. Now, look at yourself through our eyes." That was certainly not hard, the way they practically lived in each other's heads now as if they'd always been apart of each other. Their new connection bridges granting them access to basically everything including the satellite linkup meant they could stay connected at any distance at all now, and they always were, unless they had some reason not to be. "Put away everything for a moment but this picture. Look at yourself through our eyes as if you were looking at a stranger. Just pretend for a moment you've never seen this image before." She waited for Haku to take a deep breath, clear her mind as requested, put away all her biases and nod before going on. "Put yourself in a stranger's shoes. You're in a sakura orchard, you're walking around looking at the pretty trees, and you spot a white haired girl under one. Look through our eyes, tell me what you think of her."

She stared at herself, her own eyes open but not registering, seeing through theirs, watching, examining, considering. Soft face, long flowing white waterfall of hair, curvaceous, amazingly lithe yet lush in all the right places… the expression was a little sad perhaps, but the corners of her mouth and eyes had cute little laugh lines, and her red eyes were kind and held a depth of intelligence that was both profound and alluring, all of which gave the girl an exotic air of poise that seemed to draw attention right to her. And it got her… "You're right… she's beautiful…"

"She absolutely is!" Miku cheered.

Good gods they were right… She could see it now, could really and truly see her physical beauty, forced to acknowledge it for the first time. Yet… she saw the way she had acted in the past too, denying it at every opportunity. What was she so afraid of? Tears stung her eyes and she sank to her knees, but even as her shins hit the ground the other two were right there, and they caught and held her as she wept softly, "I don't… I don't want to be pretty!"

"Haku-chin… what's wrong with being who you are?" Luka asked quietly as though trying not to frighten her.

"I don't want it!" She sobbed, trying to get ahold of herself, embarrassed at breaking down in public, but… this was a thing that had been building between them for months. She felt them both squeeze her around the shoulders.

"Don't want to be pretty?" Miku asked confused, but they saw the thoughts swirling through Haku's head even as she sorted then out at last.

"I don't want the attention!" She wrapped one arm around either of them and squeezed back as months off repressed reasons and emotions came bubbling out of her. "The more beautiful a person is the more likely they'll get stalked for it. I don't want that kind of attention, don't want to be stared at or talked to just because of it. I don't want to be walking down the street and get leered at, or worse, have someone grab me!" Her arms tightened convulsively around them as she let off a shudder at the thought. "And I don't want to have to live up to it! If people think I'm beautiful they'll expect things from me, expect certain actions or effort on my part to maintain it, and if I don't live up to those expectations I'll get ridiculed!"

They were silent for awhile just holding her while she tried to stop sobbing, stroking her hair and squeezing her shoulders and murmuring comforting sounds. Once her tears finally began to slow Luka put a tender finger beneath her chin to lift her damp face up so she could look her in the eye. "You _are_ beautiful Haku-chin, that's just a fact. Wishing you weren't, denying that you are, won't stop the creeps from chasing you if they decide to. Pretending you're not, refusing to acknowledge it, won't make the rest of the world stop seeing you that way, and it won't keep people from thinking whatever they will. None of that is in your control, I'm sorry to say. What you can control though, is what you do about it." She lifted her other hand to brush at some of the tears on her cheek, and Haku thought that Luka's delicate hands on her damp face was about the most heavenly thing she'd ever felt right then. "You can dress nicely, you can keep yourself well, and you can choose what sort of image or form your beauty takes, and if someone decides to try to take advantage of that, that won't be your fault."

"And we'll be there to make them sorry if they try!" Miku said, glomming onto Haku from behind, circling her arms around her middle and pressing her cheek to her shoulder beside her head. "We love you so much, we won't let anything happen to you, and we'll help you and make you as comfortable with yourself as we possibly can, we promise!"

Haku wrapped her arms around Miku's around her tummy and leaned her face into Luka's palms. "You… you both promise? You promise you'll help me to… to be pretty… the best way…?"

Luka smiled and leaned her head down to touch their foreheads together and nuzzled softly against her angel. "You already are beautiful, and you always have been. But we promise to help you discover yourself in it, to be here for you and guide you until you're comfortable with it."

"I have like a majillionty things I want try on with you!" Miku giggled against her and practically bounced all bubbly behind her against her back. "I want to go clothes shopping together!"

"Why? We don't need regular clothes anymore." Haku said as she pulled away slightly, her tears finally stopping as she began to wipe at her face with her hands. She usually kept a silk handkerchief in a pocket but she had nowhere to put one in her dress at the moment.

"That is so not the point!" Miku objected as they all got to their feet once more. "The fun is in the shopping and the trying on the pretty things together! Oh! We should go to a jewelry store too! Buy something shiny and sparkly! What ever happened to our lockets?! Did we put them somewhere? I don't remember! Oh and Haku-chin's bracelet Luka-chin bought for your birthday!"

"My bracelet is in my room back at the Compound." She said, thinking hard about it. "Our lockets….?"

"Didn't we last have them when we were out on our Christmas night walk?' Luka pondered out loud.

"I really want my locket back, it's really special…" Miku said with a little pout.

Haku blinked at her. "It meant that much to you…?"

"Of course it did! What kind of question is that?!" Miku exclaimed with an emphatic waving of her arms. "It was a gift from you which is special enough but on top of that you gave them to us when you confessed your feelings for us! That makes them like super double extra special!" Her girlfriend's goofy word choice aside Haku felt a warmth spreading through her at the sentiment and basked in the golden glow of love she felt down the cyber link the three of them shared.

"Well at least we know they're safe inside the Compound." Luka put in, reaching a hand out to take both of their hands and continue leading them through the sakura trees. "We can go back for them any time."

"Any time now that daddy has finally released the lockdown." Miku said thoughtfully.

"I think we had them the last time we went to lunch before we had to go into hiding." Haku said, memory drifting back to her.

"Eh? Really?" Miku asked hopefully.

"Mhm, I think they're in the glove box in the car."

"I think she's right." Luka said, which elicited a cheer from the petite girl.

The orchard really was beautiful and despite the sobering thoughts to dwell on they had an extremely enjoyable time just waking amongst the sakura trees, holding each other's hands and just being together. A couple of the velvety petals landed on her cheek and shoulder and Haku thought the cherry blossom petals were as soft and as delicate as her girlfriends' skin. She let go of the hands in hers and caught them against her tummy and chest as they tumbled down her front and the other two girls turned to look back at her when she let go, her musings about their skin catching their attention down the link even as her physical motions did. Miku flushed slightly and Luka smiled playfully and Haku reached up to tuck the petals that had landed on her in their hair behind their ears. They smiled lovingly back at her and reached up to brush their hands along her arms, and she blushed faintly too but smiled back. "I love you both." She told them.

"We love you too, Haku-chin." Luka replied softly.

"And each other too!" Miku gushed. They all giggled, the three of them each feeling especially romantic beneath the cherry blossoms in that moment. They couldn't quite tell who the desire for kisses originally came from at that second, but they were all suddenly leaning closer, headless of the fact that they were in public, drawing closer and closer, eyelids drooping, lips pursing… then abruptly they jumped in startlement as a gushy voice from a certain green haired friend of theirs called out their names from a ways off.

"Teto-chin! I found them!" Gumi called. The three powerful Vocaloids split apart blushing like schoolgirls, even Luka who was usually so calm and collected she rarely ever got so much as rosy cheeked. As Gumi drew up to them she blinked curiously at their expressions as they tried not to look too flustered, then she just smiled knowingly at them. "Do you three need a moment?" She asked playfully.

Haku felt her cheeks flush even harder and she couldn't stop herself from dropping her gaze to ground. Miku seemed on the verge of apoplexy, sputtering and squeaking and choking out incoherent objections. Luka at least seemed serene enough for conversation, her crystal voice smooth and calm despite her reddened cheeks. "What is it, Gumi-chan?"

"Hm? Oh, nothing!" The curvy green haired girl said still in her playful bubbly tones. "You've been wandering around the orchard for like an hour, Teto-chin was just wondering when you'd be ready to go."

"I was wondering?" The conical pigtailed girl asked in her usual cool tones as she came up beside her short haired girlfriend. "You make it sound like I was being pushy to leave or something."

Gumi's expression changed to one of long suffering annoyance. "That was exactly what you said though! 'I wonder if they're going to be ready to leave any time soon!'"

The usually calm collected redhead actually flushed a bit and her tones turned from cool to chilly. "You don't need to repeat it like that though."

"Would you rather I lied?" Gumi asked vehemently, throwing an arm out for emphasis. Even though she fell short of a yell it still drew nearby eyes and abruptly Haku got the feeling they were making a scene.

"Well no, but do you have to mention it at all?" Teto's voice was frigid now, a cold anger that sent a shiver up Miku's spine which Haku could feel clearly down their mental link as though the chill were traveling along her own backbone. "You could have just come up and asked when we were leaving without making a big deal out of it."

"It's not my job shield the world from your abrasive attitude!" Gumi definitely shouted this time and the three of them watching began making soothing gestures to try to get their attention while casting nervous glances at the growing number of people slowing their walk around the cherry blossom orchard to stare at the arguing girls. Haku wasn't sure how they'd suddenly come to a fight like this but she wanted to get her friends out of here.

"How about we take a minute to calm down and head back to the car for some privacy…?" Luka suggested calmly but insistently.

"Oh well excuse me for thinking I could count on my girlfriend to support me in awkward situations." Teto retorted coldly, heedless of the taller idol's urgings.

"Count on, or use for a complete crutch?" Gumi snapped. "You might as well not even try for yourself!" As soon as those words were out everyone fell silent on one of those sudden awkward moments where everyone instinctively knows that a line had been crossed. Gumi's eyes widened and Teto's grew pained. After a long very heavy pause Gumi opened her mouth but Teto just turned away.

"I'll think I'll walk back. No need to wait on me." Came the cold response.

"Teto-chin wait…!" Gumi started to step forward, but the redhead quickened her pace, deliberately showing she wouldn't wait, her shoulders hunched and her body language drawn in making it clear she didn't want anyone following her. Gumi took one step before stopping, and it wasn't long before Teto rounded the gate in the wall and disappeared. Everyone stood there frozen in awkward silence and Haku didn't need the wireless link to her girlfriends to know they mirrored her discomfort. It was most likely that they'd only witnessed the tip of the iceberg in a much bigger and more widespread argument between the two of them, but that didn't make it any easier in that moment. Facing what had just happened Haku reflected on the fickleness of human nature. All of their advances as a race, all of their progress in the last two centuries since the turn of the millennium and the technology boom that heralded the age of modern medical perfection and technological purity, up to and including creating cyborgs… and ultimately they were still little more than pawns to their own psyches. After a few long tense moments Gumi turned and and looked at them, her expression a carefully blank neutral mask that was obviously designed to keep her from breaking down as much as to prevent anyone reaching out to her. Haku wanted to though, wanted to there for her friend as Gumi had been for her in the past, but the short haired girl just gestured in the direction they had parked. "Will you… drop me off somewhere…?"

"Where?" Luka asked carefully.

Gumi blinked as though that detail hadn't occurred to her and she shrugged helplessly, apparently at a loss for answer. "I don't…"

Haku's heart went out to her and she said softly, "Why don't you stay with us for awhile?" All eyes turned to her and she shrugged one shoulder. "I mean, I have plenty of space, and a lab to see to your maintenance…" None of them so much as batted an eye at that anymore. It still felt weird, but after months now it was just that they were what they were. "You can stay as long as you need, until you two…" she trailed off, the implications heavy, and there was a tense pause before Gumi finally nodded and Haku let out the breath she'd been holding.

"If… if that's really okay? I wouldn't want to be an imposition."

"Of course it's okay!" Miku chimed in, throwing her arms wide in emphasis. "We'd love to have you as a guest!"

"Well… alright then." The green haired girl seemed to lose her wording again, her usual bubbly demeanor not on evidence right then.

As she did so well in so many situations Luka shifted gears to take the lead. "Why don't we get out of here, hm?" She suggested in her crystal tones. "Miku-chin wanted to go to the mall. Maybe some shopping or something tasty would help, ne?" At Gumi's return nod the four of them turned to head back to the car. It was an awkward silence as they climbed into Haku's Maserati, Gumi staring blankly off in the direction Teto has gone as though she could see her. Haku had driven here which made it Miku's turn so she got in the back seat with Gumi while her girlfriends took the front seats and a moment later they were on the road. The curvy green haired girl stared morosely out the window at the street rolling by the entire time as they made their way deeper into the city and both buildings and crowds grew denser until they weren't far from the mall at all. No one said anything the entire ride, just sitting in awkward silence until abruptly Gumi lifted her head and let her hand slap down on her knee.

"Stop the car." She said, not impolitely but still insistently. "I'm sorry I don't want to go shopping right now. Let me out."

Miku pulled over after a few moments of searching for a spot and they let Gumi out of the Maserati. "Want us to come back by after we're done to pick you up?" Luka asked her.

Their friend shook her head in response. "No I… I think I need to be alone for awhile… I'm just gonna walk a bit… I'll find my own way back…" She looked for a moment like she might say more but then she just turned away. Haku again felt her heart going out to Gumi but… she had to sort things out, and if she didn't want company… what could they do?

"Do we… just leave her…?" Miku asked worriedly as they watched Gumi get out of sight quickly lost amongst the crowds.

With a somber sort of mood in the air now they got themselves situated back in the car and Luka looked at the petite girl still behind the wheel. "All we can really do is be there for her when she comes back, in whatever way she needs. For now the best we can do is give her the space she needs and go about our day."

Miku gave a small nod to that, then after a last glance at the crowd where their friend had disappeared she threw the car into gear and they pulled back out into traffic. "I think they've been arguing for a long time." She said speculatively.

"You've been friends with them the longest, did you ever hear them fight?" Luka asked, gazing out the window with a far off look in her blue eyes that wasn't really seeing anything. Everyone had moments like that, so absorbed in a thought one really doesn't see whatever they're looking at. Curious what that was like from the outside Haku felt gently along their cyber connection, examining the presence in the back of her head that was her mental link to the pink haired beauty. Luka's eyes were definitely working, Haku could see the street they were driving down as clearly through her girlfriend's eyes as she could her own. Mentally however that visual stimulus seemed somehow muted, as though her mind just wasn't registering it at that moment. It was an interesting thing.

"I mean, to be honest I didn't even know they were together until after they'd come to the Compound." Miku replied with a frustrated yet still adorable little pouty twist to her lips, her bubbliness leaking through even now. "They weren't exactly super close friends at the time just family acquaintances you know like we didn't get all super close until this whole deal recently with what we are and I suppose they would only argue in private because like I mean duh right like why wouldn't they want privacy for having their spats and well now that I think about it I used to sometimes see one or the other of them looking all puffy red eyed cry face status wandering alone in the halls like some creeptastic poltergeist or something like once I ran into Teto-chan late at night in the dark when I got up to potty and I shrieked so loud I would have bet my last pocky I'd woken up the entire place cuz she just looked so red faced and super freaky and I really think they'd been fighting cuz she just looked at me and whispered something about being-" she dropped her tone a little without breaking stride in her words to minic Teto's deeper natural monotone before resuming her word tirade. "- 'Jealous of your simpler circumstances, Hatsune-san.' like whatever that means I was super confused cuz that was when we were getting things all super complicated between the three of us and I had no idea how that could be seen as 'simple' like seriously how'd she even know it was so freaky I almost wet myself right there and-"

"I wonder if they've been having problems for a long time." As usual when Miku's word barrage happened it took a smooth interjection from Luka to derail her.

"On Miku-chin's birthday Gumi-chan came talk to me all red faced from crying after having a fight with Teto-chan." Haku ventured. "So they've been having arguments at least that long."

"That was almost five months ago!" Miku exclaimed as she turned the Maserati into a giant parking garage attached to the side of the mall. This one wasn't quite so big as the Stellar Palace but The Factory was still huge. Once they'd parked and gotten out they made for the mall entrance, a thought inward while they walked shifting their nanite cheongsams to mimic their more usual outfits instead.

The bottom floor had been renovated this month tio display all kinds of promotional stands and displays with kiosks everywhere and even a couple of setups with artistic displays and tables as seats for relaxing or eating. They walked along looking at everything and enjoying being out together, which was the most important part to Haku. Most of the time she didn't care where she was as long as the other two were with her. They were more important to her than anything else in the world.

The mall had several clothing stores and Miku seemed determined lead them into every last one, skipping along ahead of the other two in absolute shopping bliss. The first stop was a designer casual wear store, and the petite girl skipped straight up to the most expensive racks without a second thought. "Ohmigosh this shirt would look so great on you Haku-chin!" She exclaimed, immediately snatching up a dark grey t-shirt with a wide neck that would bare her shoulders a little bit. It had a black heart on the lower half that would lay flat against her tummy if she wore it. Miku held it up to Haku's neck to let it hang down her front and scrutinized the effect for a moment. "Well the cut is nice anyway, but the heart is a little odd in these colors." Haku blinked as the shirt went back on the track.

"What about this?" Luka suggested lifting up a black floral patterned lace top. It was completely see through on the short sleeves and upper chest but not below that and she held it up to Haku's torso in the same way Miku had. The shorter girl turned and gasped.

"That is toooooootally you!" She gushed.

"You… think so?" Haku asked, starting to feel self conscious. She'd agreed to this, asked them to help her feel pretty, and they were doing it… but she wasn't sure she was really ready for it. They could feel her doubt through their mental connection of course, her unease practically rolling off her, but they smiled and that golden glow that she knew was their love brightened across their cyberlink, and it helped ease her nerves considerably.

"You don't have to buy anything, Haku-chin." Luka set a hand on her upper arm reassuringly and gave it a squeeze. "This isn't about committing to a change, it's just about seeing, and believing." She smiled that small private smile again, which always melted Haku a little on the inside. "And, if at all possible, having fun."

"It's kinda like playing dress up, ne?" Miku said, circling both of her arms around Haku's other arm and hugging it to herself. "We're just looking and admiring, you don't have to feel like we're here to get anything. There's no pressure at all, it's just another thing do to out together! You don't need to buy anything unless something really catches your fancy and you decide to for yourself!"

Haku gave a nod feeling reassured, and after a brief glance around to make sure no one was in eyeshot so they could trade quick kisses they went back to looking through the clothes. For the next couple of hours they looked through rack after rack in section after section as they hopped between stores in the mall. Some of the clothes they held up to her in considering ways as before, others they took one glance at to reject them and move on. Once or twice they looked around for a mirror to look themselves over, holding a shirt or pants up over themselves or each other to see how it looked in the mirror. After awhile Haku began to find that she really was having fun even despite her reservations from earlier. Miku was right, it was sorta like dress up, and the three of them were beginning to have a wonderful time together.

"This purple blouse would really make your eyes pop, Haku-chin." Luka said, holding one up for inspection.

"Really?" She asked, squinting at the cut and the way it would cause it to really hang off her shoulders. "I don't know. I think it would really look better on you." She replied.

"Eh? No way." Miku chimed in, flicking through a rack of shirts with a measured click click click of hangers as she shifted them aside. "Purple is definitely one of your colors, Haku-chin."

"Ha?" Haku blushed. "No, you both look great in purple too."

"Not as great as you do!" Miku insisted.

"Everyone has their colors that just seem to compliment them best, but that doesn't mean they don't look good on others." Luka put in as she turned away from the rack she was at.

They all stopped and looked at each other for a long moment, Haku wondering what to do next while the other two considered how far to try to push things. Finally Miku snatched up the purple blouse and also a pair of black designer jeans that had little silvery sparkles spaced out along the seams in little swirly patterns and grabbed one of Haku's hands with her free one. "Come on! Let's try them on!"

"Wh-what? But I-!" Haku tried to object, but Miku held on and it was either go along or forcibly pull her hand away, so a moment later she found herself pulled into a dressing room while Luka shut the thin door behind them. "I thought you said-!"

"We're just trying them on, you don't have to buy them!" Miku said encouragingly, holding up the blouse to prompt her.

"It's part of the experience, that's all." Luka added softly behind her.

With both of their eyes on her Haku sighed and resigned herself. She supposed she'd asked for this afterall, so with a thought she let most of her nanite clothing fade, the microscopic machines retreating almost instantly back into her body, all except for the ones mimicking her favorite lacy black bra and panties. She didn't have to look up to see her girlfriends eying her body, their presences in the back of her mind giving that much away as she pulled the blouse on over her head, the golden glow of love tinging ever so faintly with the sunset red of passion. Wordlessly Miku held the jeans out and Haku took them next, sliding them up her legs then buttoning them after. She turned to the mirror sliding her hands down her sides and over her hips self consciously… and froze. If she was supposed to be keeping an open mind about this, supposed to be looking at herself through their eyes, supposed to be letting them help guide her toward being comfortable being pretty… then she had to admit, looking at herself in these designer clothes in this mirror…

"You look so good in that, Haku-chin." Luka breathed behind her.

"Like so super amazing!" Miku chimed.

"I… think so too…" She admitted to them, turning this way and that to examine herself in the mirror. She really did like it, even the way the broad neck of the blouse seemed to barely cling to the edges of her shoulders and the way the jeans hugged her hips. Sensing her gradual shift towards a positive feeling about it along their connection Miku opened her mouth to ask a question, but for once finding a bit of self control she bit her lip to keep the words back. They'd both promised not to push her afterall, but she could see the question still in her girlfriend's mind, and she could see how they were both admiring her in the outfit, how they were both looking at and appreciating her form, and abruptly she felt elated. Leaning over to give the petite girl a pleased kiss she leaned back and smiled at her. "Yes, I think I want to buy it." She answered the silent question, and Miku broke out into giggles. Luka leaned in to give them both kisses too, the heat in the dressing room beginning to rise as soft lips parted against one after the other, but they swallowed and giggled at each other as Haku popped the tags off. She wanted to wear the new outfit right then, so they left the dressing room with them in hand to go pay.

As they approached the register Haku glanced around toward the shop's doors and checked the time with a brief inward thought to her internal systems. They had gone through several of the clothing stores in the mall, and while they'd been at it for some time she was sure they hadn't been to them all yet. She didn't want to spend all day going to every last one but she didn't have to worry, the other two seemed to be about finished as well, despite the earlier feeling from Miku of wanting to see them all. They'd had a great time window shopping and they both had smiles for her as they left the store, and surprisingly she found herself thinking about some of the other clothes they'd looked at. How they'd looked held up to her, how the fabrics had felt, how the cuts would hang on her… then it hit her. This was a normal thing out for girls her age to be doing. To Luka and Miku this was no different than any other outing, but she'd lived a very shut away life. She's never realized how cathartic just shopping could be. Sensing her thoughts as always her girlfriends turned to glance at her… and that's when the cake came into view.

All of their eyes widened in shocked surprise at the massive chocolate confection being wheeled by on a cart. It was enough layers high that if set on the ground would probably rival Miku in height with it's tapering tiers, each of which was decorated (nay, encrusted) with patterned bits of candy pieces and swirls of frosting all over it. It was being pushed by several people and was clearly on it's way somewhere else in the mall but all three of them couldn't help but take a few steps forward at the glorious chocolatey dream slowly making it's way away from them. It looked so delicious that Haku found herself envious of whoever it was intended for, and like her girlfriends she was almost completely oblivious to her surroundings as they moved forward a few steps more. Then a few more. Then a few more… Haku stopped abruptly as she felt her toe bump something. She looked down, seeing the rim of the huge fountain in the center of the plaza they'd entered. She stopped herself just in time and, somehow sensing the other two in the same predicament, reached a frantic hand up to try to catch them. She managed to get ahold of Luka, but a sharp squeal and a splash said she'd missed Miku.

"Iyaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" Miku screeched, scrambling around in the water trying to get up as quickly as she could and splashing water around all over in her haste. Haku was just as quick as Luka to reach out a hand to help the petite girl, and they both got splashed themselves as Miku grabbed ahold.

"Yaaaa! That's cold!" Haku shrieked as she felt the frigid bite of the water soak into her brand new blouse.

"Miku-chin! Calm down, we've got you!" Luka told her, holding fast and lifting in time with Haku.

"I can't help it I'm soaked and it's so coooooooold!" Miku whined plaintively as they lifted her clear of the fountain rim and she stepped back over the edge, splashing yet more water all over. A puddle quickly formed at their feet and she began shivering. "Co-cooooooooooold!" She whined pitifully.

"Come on." Luka said, tugging the shorter girl around by the hand she was still holding and making for the restrooms. Haku followed and as they went she spotted a janitor or maintenance staff or… what did they call themselves here? She wasn't sure but he'd seen what happened and she gestured at the puddle with an apologetic look and he nodded his understanding.

The bathrooms weren't as crowded as she might have thought they'd be for late afternoon on a business day and they shuffled their soaked girlfriend into a stall, her shoulders hunched with the frigid water and her makeup running in wet tracks down her cheeks. Haku held her hands up and tilted her head a bit. "Let your clothes go, Miku-chin." Still shivering Miku blinked wide eyed at the abruptness of the request, and Haku winced at herself. "I mean… I think I can help…"

"O-Okay…" she mumbled, and her nanites receded the same way Haku's own had in the changing room, which visibly just looked like they shrank then just faded away in the space of a heartbeat. The tiny machines had as little issue moving through and out of the water that had soaked in among them in their fabricated clothing as they did moving through living cells so Miku's bare skin began to glisten wetly as through she'd just stepped out of a bath. She stood there naked and shivering with visible goose bumps pebbling up all over her and a pitiful look on her face. "Wh-wh-what are you g-gonna d-do?"

Haku smiled reassuringly and let her own nanites form to her will. The fabricated cloth seemed to start in her palms and fall out from her empty hands, but it merged and expanded downward until a moment later it looked like she was holding a huge fluffy white towel. Miku and Luka's eyes both went wide and the twintailed girl squeed happily and threw herself into it and against Haku, who captured her in a big soft fluffy towel hug and held her close with a giggle. Her shorter girlfriend felt nice in her arms like this, even if she was squirming around trying to get dry, and Haku enjoyed the feel of Miku's body against hers through the towel. When Miku stopped rotating in place she pressed her cheek to the top of the other girl's damp head, not caring about the wetness in the silky light blue hair. and she felt Miku's arms go around her waist. Then Luka leaned in and gave them both a hug at once, enveloping both of them around the shoulders. "You're brilliant Haku-chin, as always." It was a warm fuzzy feeling and they all took a moment to bask in it and the golden glow.

Once Miku was all dried of she let her clothes come back, this time a white one piece dress with teal and black stripes along her sides and up onto her shoulders, and Haku patted her cheeks clean of the washed out makeup while she held her face up with a cute little scrunched look. Once that was done she held the fabricated towel away from herself over a sink and let her nanites retract back into her body through her hands."Thank you Haku-chin!" She said with a little giggle. Most of the moisture and ruined makeup ended up in the sink and she washed the little bit off that had gotten on her hands. When she was done and turned around Miku smiled at her. "Now let's go get some got tea! It'll help warm me back up!"

"That sounds like a lovey idea." Luka agreed, letting her clothes change to so she was dry from the small splash she'd made. She shifted into a light green floral patterned sundress, and taking either of them by the hand the pink haired beauty led them from the bathroom back out into the mall. The logical part of Haku's mind said that they shouldn't be holding hands so openly out in public like this, that they might be seen and perpetuate the rumors about them, but her heart cried out for joy at getting to hold hands with the women she loved more than life itself, and after the emotional day they'd had her heart won without much trouble. She could feel the same sense of joy from the other two as well, and she marveled that such a small thing could affect them so.

Luka led them to a small relaxed cafe that was busy but that had it's chairs and tables arranged in such a way as to give everyone a modicum of privacy. Stepping up to the counter the waitress gave a formal bow at the waist, her black shirt and red apron both on the frilly side. "Good evening to you and welcome to Chaya. What may I have prepared for such honored guests this afternoon?"

Haku glanced up at the sign over the door. The kanji literally read "tea house" but the way she pronounced it sounded cute. She heard Miku order for them all while she was looking around. "Three hot spiced chai teas and biscuits, please!" Haku turned her head back around in time to see the cashier give an accepting bow of her head as she rang it up. Miku produced a credit card and the holo display on the register terminal lit up as she beeped it over it.

"Thank you very much, we'll bring that right out to you, if you'd care to have a seat!"

"Thank you!" Miku giggled and led them over to a seat near the windows. Luka perched on a stool and Miku pulled a chair up leaving Haku to slide one over for herself too. Once they got situated the petite girl glanced around and caught a look of her reflection in the window and her face fell. "Oh nooooooooo! My makeup all washed off cuz of the fountain! I totally didn't bring my touch up kit, I didn't think I'd need it!"

"I've got mine." Luka said, reaching into a pocket hidden in the folds of her patterned sundress and producing a little plastic case. "If you'd like I can at least do your eyeliner, blush, and lipstick?"

"Ooooooh yes please!" She scooted her chair forward so their knees were almost touching as Luka set the plastic case down on the counter in front of herself and opened it. Haku watched transfixed as the pink haired beauty lifted a small eye liner pencil free of it and reached up to start working as Miku shut her eyes and pushed her face forward eagerly. Luka slowly worked her way around one eye then the other, then ran a small bristle mascara brush through Miku's eyelashes ever so carefully, then traded that for a soft pad she used to gently pat a rosy tint into Miku's cheeks with. By the time that was all done their chai and little hard biscuits showed up, and Miku took a minute to take a few long drinks before she let Luka do her lipstick. "Ah! Ah, that's hot!"

"Wasn't that the point…?" Luka smirked at her, and Miku stuck her tongue out at the taller idol with a little "Bleeeeeh!" sound, which just made Luka giggle at her.

Miku set her cup aside after a moment then leaned forward once more and closed her eyes, pushing her face out toward Luka again and pursing her lips. Haku contented herself with nibbling on one of the hard little biscuits as she watched Luka's face take on a look of concentration as she began to trace the lipstick over Miku's lips. A sun beam through the window was falling at just the right angle to frame the little scene in a picturesque way, and Haku was struck again by just how beautiful and natural they were. With a little thought she snapped an internal picture with her cyber mind, storing the image away in her internal data for later. She loved nothing more than watching the women she loved. … … well. Maybe one or two things more than just watching them…

… … … … …

"Come." He called out on in response to a knock at the office door without looking up from the reports he was reading on the tablet.

"General Akita?" Came the inquisitive call from the doorway. Sergeant Stone stepped just inside and shut the door behind him. "The units have regained consciousness."

The General set his tablet down on the desk before him and laced his fingers together. "Excellent news. It took longer than expected, any sign of implant rejection or software malfunction?"

"The Doctor is giving them a full medical examination now. At the moment it's too early to say for certain, but initial scans appear very promising. Their technological abilities should begin to acclimate very quickly, and their power cores are stable."

"Very good." He leaned back in his chair, resting his still folded hands on his stomach. "Then we will begin phase two immediately."

"Yes sir. What are our orders for the operation?' Stone wanted to know.

"An enemy allowed to collect itself and regroup is a tiresome foe, but a cornered opponent is a dangerous adversary. We want to harry them, to wear them down, to deny them their comforts and their resources little by little until there is no fight left in them."

"So we will start with their base of operations?" The sergeant asked curiously. "Our surveillance has shown their manor to be in use once more. We can get in now."

"No." General Akita said with a shake of his head. "The entire Compound of theirs is to large a step at once. We want to harry them, not attack. Deny them a resource." He lifted his laced fingers up to tap his knuckles against his chin thoughtfully. "We will take the Hatsune parents into custody and seize their scientific assets and equipment. An empty house should serve as an abrupt douse of cold reality, and may even net us a technological advantage on our own cybernetic efforts as well."

Stone gave a sharp salute. "Yes sir, I will issue your orders at once. We will be prepared to move within the hour!" With that he ducked back out the door, pulling it shut behind him as he went.

Allowing himself to indulge in a rare moment of being pleased with himself and in how events were going he leaned further back in his chair and thought about how the next twenty four hours were likely to go. Once he had denied them their medical and scientific support these girls would have nowhere to turn, while his own units would be maintained by his team. They would be at a disadvantage facing them, and then it would only be a matter of time before they were so drained of resources and sapped of spirit that they would give up with little fight. Oh yes, he could see it all so clearly.

… … … … …

It had been five days since he had unlocked the Compound and Motsu felt his nerves frayed on edge for some reason he couldn't quite put his finger on. He had yet to give the all clear and recall everyone back to duty so the entire manor was empty, and he was hesitant to do so until whatever was causing his unease resolved itself or came to light. As Director he was responsible for everyone under his care, as well as his creations and potentially highly dangerous things inside the lower laboratory levels. If anything here fell into the wrong hands, it would be disastrous for the world at large, and he would never allow something like that.

Allowing himself a small sigh of annoyance he tapped at the main console of the command room, and the 3D holo map of the city rotated. Souldrinker activity was down, it seemed like the Vocaloids were keeping on top of things, and for that much at least he was grateful. The entire satellite network and detection grid would stay online forever, but the actual analytical machines that routed the signals were here in the lab. They still had no idea why the souldrinkers were a problem, had no clues as to where they'd come from or how they continued to pop up everywhere. They'd intended to do research into it at some point yet they hadn't actually managed to find time for it yet. The recent issues with their old partners, the Yowanes, as well as the Government popping up, had kept them all preoccupied of late. Perhaps now they might find the time to do something about it…

He felt arms go around his shoulders from behind him in his seated position and he reached up to hug them to himself. Mira was the only other one in building with him, and here in private he would allow himself to show a little more affection. "You've been staring at that console for hours." His wife said gently, her darker blue braid shifting to fall forward slightly from where it was tucked in to the nape of her lab coat. "Gleaning any insights form it?"

"Just speculating on a few things." He told her idly as he stared at the map.

"What things?" She asked curiously.

He gestured at the city, at the pale dots where recent souldrinker had been. "Just the whys and the whens of recent things."

She blinked at it curiously with a little tilt of her head as she looked at it over his shoulder. "We have a lot more questions than answers still, that's for sure."

He rotated the map around a bit, and abruptly something caught his eye. The area in which they were at on the edge of the city had activity in it. He zoomed it in, the satellite system focusing on their neighborhood with the Compound at it's center… and his blood ran cold even as he felt his wife's arms tense around his shoulders. Several large armored vehicles were coming down the streets nearby, and they looked like they were heading right for their manor. He stood to rush for the elevator, Mira a step or two behind him, and when they were both inside he hammered the button to take them to the roof. As soon as the doors dinged and opened to admit them to the top of the Compound they rushed to the edge of the rooftop so they could get a look in the direction they'd seed on the holomap… and froze.

"The government…" She murmured beside him as the five huge armored troop transports made their way down the street a few blocks away.

"They're definitely coming this way." He agreed as he felt ice running through his entire body now.

"We unlocked the manor too soon." Mira said, looking around and up to him. "We have to lock it down again!" They ran back for the elevator but even as the doors were closing they saw the first the armored transports pulling up out front.

"There's no time…" He said as the full import of the situation dawned on him. "There's only one possible reason for them to bring such a huge squad, and they'll be inside in moments…"

"Then…" She swallowed hard and looked at the control panel. "Then… that means we only have one choice…"

He nodded and used his keycard to unlock the hidden panel in the elevator and pressed the lowest level button, the bottom most sub basement, and the elevator began moving. Mira took out her phone, opening the camera app and setting it to front face and turned the recording on. She smiled sadly at it and angled it to get both of them in the shot. "Miku dear… this isn't how we wanted things to go… but we have to say goodbye now. We've been cornered by the government and have no way out. There's nothing else we can do…" she trailed off a moment as the elevator dinged and they stepped out into the reactor room. They moved up beside the giant fission generator and Motsu took up the explanation for the moment, Mira tipping her phone so it could see them both better.

"There are things in the Compound we cannot allow the government to get ahold of. Prototype upgrades for the Vocaloid implants, our research and notes and all of our equipment, the hardware we've developed in the Vocaloid project… it's all far too dangerous. The Yowanes have proven that just in the damage they've done with the nanites and selling the hardware they did to the government in the first place, but we have to contain the damage. We created all this, and we must take responsibility."

"If you're ever in trouble, our first lab was beneath the hospital." Mira said quietly, but it was all they could offer now. "There might be something useful there."

"You girls are our legacy now." He said, and at that moment the red waning klaxons began to blare the alarm of intruders in the Compound. He turned away from the camera and began to push buttons on the reactor controls.

"No matter what happens in the future," Mira said to her camera, a silent tear running down her cheeks, "Know that we love you dearly. You are the best parts of both of us, all three of you are."

"We never imagined our daughter would fall in love with another woman, let alone two." Motsu said, and he could feel his voice choking up a bit in this, his final moments. "But Luka, Haku… you are both wonderful people. I could ask for no better for my wonderful daughter. She means everything to me, and as she chose you, so do you."

"Take care of each other." The tears rolling down Mira's cheeks flowed freely now, but she kept that smile fixed on her face for the camera. "We love you."

"Self Destruct sequence initiated." Came a small computerized announcement from the terminal as Motsu hit the last couple of buttons. "T-minus one minute."

Mira turned the camera off and pulled up Miku's phone number in her cellphone and sent the video. She watched it to make certain it uploaded before letting her phone drop from her hand to the floor. Her shoulders hunched and she let out a gasping sob. "My babies…"

Motsu stepped over and took her in his arms, and she pressed her face to his chest. "We've done all we can for them." He told her softly, fighting his own emotion choking his voice. He would be strong in their final minute, as he always had been. "We always knew it could come to this, and we've given them everything we can. They will do well."

"Self destruct in T-minus thirty seconds."

"Motsu…"

"Yes?"

"I love you."

"I love you too."

"Self destruct in T-minus ten seconds." They squeezed each other tightly, and held on dearly as the final seconds counted down, and the explosions began to blossom around them.

… … … … …

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" Luka asked as she guided the Maserati down the street. "Your dad hasn't officially recalled everyone back to the Compound yet."

"Yeah totes, we need Haku-chin's bracelet and she wants that painting…" Miku muttered the last bit. "For somer eason…" Haku just aimed a smile back over her shoulder at her petite girlfriend, and Miku stuck her tongue out at her. Luka opened her mouth but as they were coming around the corner a couple of blocks away Miku's cell phone signal, now routed straight into her cybermind as were all of theirs, popped up a notification of a message received in her mind. They could all see it pop up, linked as they always were, and Miku blinked curiously. "Message from mom? Wha-?" Then the explosion tore the air.

The series of booms accompanied by the fireball shooting up from around the next block was so intense it rocked the car and they all let out a little shriek, and Luka just barely kept the car from swerving into the oncoming lane of traffic. "Was that-?!" She gasped as she angled the car around the last turn and she hammered her foot to the floor to speed towards it. Even as she did they could all see in their mind's eye as Miku brought the message from her mother up, and as the video file opened their veins all felt like the froze over like a winter lake at the first words from her parent's. "Miku dear…"

When they reached the scene of the explosion there was little left besides a filled in crater that reached out clear across the street and into adjoining lots, where there had once been a park across the way, and Haku thought it was eerily reminiscent of the destruction of her parent's lab on the outskirts of the city. Tears began to streak down all of their cheeks as the video played through their minds, and as they pulled the car over Miku began to scramble out from the back seat. Haku and Luka got out and the twintailed girl slammed the seats forward so she could run out to the edge of the still burning wreckage that had been her home, then sank to her knees and let out a soul wrenching scream of sheer mortification. The pain coursing through her chest ripped through all of them, and they could do nothing but sink down to the ground beside her and hold on as tightly as they could. Miku screamed and screamed and screamed her fury and sorrow out and Luka and Haku cried against her shoulders even as they squashed her between them. When the video had played out in her mind Miku started it over and kept screaming, and they stayed like that for long minutes until sirens began to be audible over the roar of the flaming debris all around. Emergency response crews were mobilizing, and Luka got to her feet and began tugging at them.

"We have to go, the police will be coming."

"NO!" Miku screamed. "NO! NONONONONO!"

"We have to!" Luka cried back, grabbing and yanking at her arm. "They wouldn't want us to-"

Miku cut her off. "I'M NOT LEAVING THEM! I'M NOT LEAVING THEM!"

"THEY WOULDN'T WANT US TO GET CAUGHT LIKE THIS!" Luka screamed shrilly, even her composure gone in the moment, and the lack of even her self control seemed to get through to Miku at least to some degree.

"Miku-chin…" Haku thought her chest was going to explode with the sheer horror of the situation. "We have to go… they… they gave their lives for ours… we have to go…"

"I c-can't…" Miku began, but Luka pushed her gently but firmly toward the car.

"We have to." She sobbed, and once they were all back in she got them moving, driving away as fast as she could without raising suspicion.

Miku pressed her face to the back window of the car and watched as they drove away. There was nothing for it but to get away, but even once they were blocks away the smoke and glow of the fire was still visible, and she stared at it as she cried. "W-We were… m-minutes too late… j-just m-minutes… just a f-f-few minutes..."

***End of Book 1***


	38. Vocaloid Voltage Chapter 1

The sound of the car pulling into the driveway told Haku that Ia had returned even before Vy's smooth slightly effeminate voice reached her, "Aria-sama and Megpoid-sama have returned, Yowane-sama." Then the pale haired girl herself came in the front door, followed a moment later by Gumi. The pair of them had been gone all afternoon car shopping, which in and of itself wasn't exactly necessary as they had more than enough vehicles at the Yowane Estate to meet their needs, but following her recent success in the world of show business Gumi's spending habits had grown more and more lavish. It had been perhaps three months since she'd moved in to Haku's family home after her breakup with Teto, and she thought perhaps her short green haired friend was maybe spending money as a balm for her separation from the stoic redhead. That wasn't the reason she gave of course, she simply said she'd gotten more popular since her debut with the Vocaloids and deserved to treat herself, and that while Haku, Luka, and Miku's love of antique cars was endearing that she wanted something more modern to the twenty-second century. Her popularity couldn't be doubted, that was for sure. She and Ia both had made smash hits in the idol world, and though they still performed under the Vocaloid name and did shows with the rest of them they'd also started taking shows in pairs or solo as well; another way for Gumi to dull the pain. More than that even however, Haku had noticed something else… The two of them had begun spending a lot of time together outside of what could be explained by work or as roommates in Haku's Estate. They shared almost every meal, talked quietly in corners, and even stayed up late in each other's rooms, even sharing their baths. They'd been making very suggestive eyes at each other too… well, Gumi had been at Ia at any rate…

For her part Ia seemed reserved about the whole notion. She was perhaps the most emotionally in tune person Haku had ever met, and she was sure that Ia wouldn't intentionally lead on someone who had recently gone through a rough breakup, but… it wasn't exactly recent anymore. It had been months, and they'd still been so… suggestive with each other. She wasn't sure what to do about it. Wasn't sure if she even should, if she even had the right to. They were her friends but… it didn't seem like the sort of subject you could just broach like that. She watched as they came in, and Gumi gave Ia a beaming smile full of adoration, and Ia smiled back in a more reserved way as she shut the door behind herself. The computerized voice of the Estate's AI issued in the entry hall again. "Welcome home, Megpoid-sama, Aria-sama. Was your trip fruitful?"

Gumi let out a sigh of annoyance and glanced at Haku, answering both Vy's question as well as Haku's inquisitive stare. "Uch, no! Their cars were all like super stale. Just a bunch of modern hover cars, nothing with any like real pizzazz. How's a girl supposed to make an impression in a floating white box?" She scoffed to show what she thought of that, then turned to Ia and put a hand on her upper arm in an almost flirtatious way. "I'll meet you upstairs, ne?" Ia gave a nod and Gumi flounced off with a little giggle.

As soon as she was gone Ia turned to blink at Haku. They stared at each other for a long moment and Haku wanted to ask the obvious question, but she also didn't want to be rude. Ever in touch with the emotions of those around her Ia answered the unspoken inquiry. "You want to know if we're together." She said.

Haku blushed ever so faintly despite that being exactly what she was wondering and she muttered quietly. "It just seems… sudden, that's all. She broke up with Teto-chan and a week later…" She trailed off and looked up, but Ia didn't say anything and after a moment Haku tried again. "She's still hurting over it, I didn't think you would…"

"I'm not." Ia said, and Haku blinked at her. "We're not."

"Oh." She felt her cheeks begin to blaze. She'd gotten the wrong idea and had just had to open her big mouth. She dropped her gaze, embarrassed and feeling like a fool. "I… I'm sorry, it was none of my business, I shouldn't have pried."

Ia smiled graciously and waved a hand dismissively. "It's okay Haku-chan, you were concerned for your friends that's all." Her head came up and she considered the other white haired girl. "I think she wants it to go that way, at least I think that she thinks she does. But we haven't… done… anything yet…" Even Ia's cheeks grew red at that and Haku felt her own get a little warmer. "I'm just trying to provide her a safe rebound. Better me than some stranger, ne?"

"Then you're not…?" Haku swallowed hard. "Not… interested… in her?"

They were both blushing furiously now but Ia shook her head. "I think she's a wonderful person and if our situations were different I could… I could see us working but… but that doesn't matter. One look at her face whenever Teto-chan is brought up and it's obvious she's still in love, even through the hurt, whether she knows it herself or not. I won't... put myself between them."

Haku had an impulse and reached out to wrap her arms around her friend. Ia blinked, surprised at the comforting hug, but after a moment she returned it gratefully. "Forgive me, I thought… I thought you were just hurting too after you and Meiko… well… I mean after she moved out of here. I assumed the worst and I'm sorry.

Ia's arms tightened reflexively at that but her voice stayed mostly steady. "Meiko and I… just weren't meant to be." She replied in a sad tone of voice, and Haku didn't fail to notice the lack of address where there used to be one for the other ex-government girl. "After talking it over… and over… we felt that any attraction was probably just because we had to rely on each other so heavily while we were in captivity…"

Haku nodded as she pulled back a bit, "That's understandable, such a shared experience would naturally create a bond between two people.'

"And once you freed us…" Ia concluded softly, "There was nothing left holding is together. There was no heat or passion or anything between us, there hadn't ever been. Without our shared hardship forcing the circumstances, there was nothing to keep us together, that's all…" That's all… that didn't sound like all to Haku and she wanted to press for more details, but she'd already been rude to her friend once, she didn't want to offend again. She wondered if the two of them really were finished… or if they had really ever been together in the first place. She didn't have a chance to really consider it though because Ia abruptly changed the topic on her. "How's Miku-chan doing?"

With a reflexive thought Haku checked the connection that held the presence of her girlfriends in the back of her mind, their mental cyberlink conveying everything about the others to each of the other two as it always did, but she needn't have bothered. She could still hear the music through Miku's own ears across the connection, the sad piano music having been a near constant rhythm in their minds for the past few weeks. It was driving them a little mad, her and Luka both, but at least the twintailed girl had begun playing more than just _Rolling Girl_ over and over again as she'd done at first after she'd finally roused from bed. But even that had been an improvement over the first month. After her parents' deaths she'd been nearly inconsolable, alternating between laying in bed for hours without moving to hysterical fits of crying. Luka and Haku had been there through it all for her of course, but the day she'd gotten up out of bed on her own without one or the other of the two of them to gently urge her to the bathroom and began playing the piano, Haku had thought she was making progress at last but… It hadn't been much of a step. Once she started varying her songs because she could tell she was driving her lovers up a wall it had still been sad songs, always tunes with a morose melody, always a tear jerker.

"She's still…" Haku muttered briefly before trailing off, and Ia nodded her understanding sadly.

"I'd better go check on Gumi-chan." The pale haired girl murmured, and Haku nodded. Ia gave her upper arm a squeeze of reassurance before heading up the stairs and disappearing from sight.

Haku stood there a moment, not really seeing anything in particular, then after a minute headed toward the back of her family's estate, to the large storage room her girlfriends had converted into a studio. She opened the door and walked in without saying anything, but Miku knew she was coming so it would have been unnecessary anyway. The petite girl shifted slightly to the side to give Haku room to sit, a clear invitation, so she sat and Miku played on. After awhile the song she was on ended and Haku felt an impulse seize her. For all their cybernetic components and technological dependence, Vocaloids were creatures of instinct and emotion, and they learned to trust that, to trust the feelings that drove them when they popped up. Reaching her hands up so she was positioned to one side of the piano since she'd taken half the bench, she cast a brief glance at Miku. The shorter girl blinked at her dully, the grief in her eyes so profound it made Haku want to cry, but since she could feel each emotion from the other she just made herself smile and focused on trying to convey love down their link more than anything else.

Without a word she began to play a simple series of scales, trailing to her side off the piano. Her girlfriends had both been giving her music lessons these past months, though Luka more than Miku now, and she managed the scales gracefully enough. Up the scale then down, sounding half steps the whole way. When she got back to middle C on the piano she looked back up to Miku. The other girl had watched her dully the whole time, and turned her stare silently up to meet Haku's gaze in return, green eyes meeting red. After a moment of nothing Haku looked down and repeated the scale, a slow steady rhythm. Miku's presence in the back of her mind was a knot of pain and mourning… but there was a faint spark of interest buried beneath. Luka's presence in her head was perfectly still, and while it always was like that when the tall pink haired beauty was on a souldrinker patrol, focused like an arrow knocked to a bow. It was even more still now, almost as though she was mentally holding her breath as she experienced what was going on at home between her two lovers.

Once she'd competed a third set of scales at a slightly faster pace with Miku's eyes still on her, flickering back and forth between her eyes and her hands, Haku let her smile widen a bit and she leaned over slightly to gently but insistently nudge Miku in the side with her elbow. "Don't just sit there watching. Play with me." She began a fourth scale, going just a bit faster this time, and for a moment she thought her attempt to draw the other girl out a bit might not be successful, but as she peaked the top of the scale Miku set fingers to keys and descended the notes with her, the keys ringing in perfect time. Without a word they started another scale, this time eighth notes with a peppy little hop up and then back down. Then another scale, this one alternating back and forth a full step up then half step down as they worked their way along the scale. Then another scale together, and Miku took that lead this time, setting rhythm and pace for it. Haku smiled as she shifted to the follower in their little duet, and even though they were just playing scales Miku wove the notes a little faster and a little more intricately each time as her fingers danced along the piano keys. Haku was getting better and better at playing various instruments under the tutelage of the much more experienced idols but it wasn't long before Miku's improvising reached the limit of what she could do, and the peak of the complex interwoven set her hands seemed to trip over themselves and mashed the keys with an unceremonious kablong.

Her fumble on the piano keys seemed to pop whatever tenuous bubble Haku had built up with her little prompting and abruptly Miku pulled her hands back to ball into fists like she'd been burned. She clenched her jaw and tears began to leak out from the corners of her eyes. Without hesitation Haku wrapped her arms around the smaller girl and pulled her close, Miku resisting for a fraction of a moment before letting herself lean over into her and start to cry, the sort soul wrenching tears of mourning she was still letting out weeks after her parents' deaths. "Th… They're g-gone." She wailed. "Goooooooone!" Haku could do nothing but squeeze her right, hold her close, and rock her gently through that tears.

Halfway across the city Luka turned down another alleyway yet was still connected to her two girlfriends at home via the satellite linkup Haku had established in their cyberminds to maintain their direct connection at virtually any distance. She could feel the grief and despair coming from Miku so sharp and intensely it was almost like it were her own. They all wanted to cry over this, The Hatsunes had been all the parents any of the three of them had had, considering the circumstances. It was a major blow, not just to them personally but to the Vocaloids as well. With the doctors gone and their previous Compound destroyed they were short on resources and had almost no way to do anything besides basic maintenance. Haku was doing her best to figure things out, but with Miku being nearly inconsolable and needing their love and support through this it really limited how much could be done at a time. And then there were the souldrinkers…

Luka really hated this blind patrolling business, it always made her skin crawl. She had no idea why Vocaloids could sense the creatures when near enough, but with the Compound gone along with all of the tracking equipment inside it that meant they had no other means of detecting souldrinker activity aside from wandering down alleys or driving through the streets. Fortunately she didn't have to go barging into buildings since her detection range was enough to tell if anything was inside it from a couple dozen meters away, but it was still a touch and go process. Some nights she'd get four or five of the creatures, others maybe one, and sometimes whole evenings would pass without a trace of any. Haku was working on a way to link the satellite still in orbit and the detection devices the Hatsunes had set up around the city into the Yowane Estate computer banks, but without the Hatsune's old equipment she was having to rewrite programs from scratch and design new routing methods, and the work was slowed down by their need to console Miku in her grief at the deaths of her parents in the explosion.

Her thoughts drifted around these things as she did her best to convey love and comfort down the cyber link to her girlfriends to be there through that grief even if she wasn't there in person right that moment. She could feel it reach them, feel them respond, and they all shared in the grief and the love alike. She could feel the softness of Haku's shoulder and arm through Miku's cheeks and side, could hear the wails and feel the shaking of Miku's body through Haku's ears and arms. Luka was on autopilot as she walked around a couple of different blocks, most of her attention occupied but not really concerned by it because her instincts wound guide her in this, as they did in everything else. She was walking a circular search path outward with the center being where she had parked the Ferrari, and so it was as she was crossing another street she felt it. The other two felt her sense of the souldrinker too and the sudden danger of the situation was even enough to halt Miku's tears as both of her girlfriends focused on her, and she carried them in her mind like spectators as she began to hunt. Well, more than spectators, since they could experience everything she was thinking or feeling as she went about this.

First down one street, then around the corner and down the next. The creature was on the move, possibly hunting a victim even as she hunted it in turn. It led her through a plaza district with heavy foot traffic, and it must have been moving at a brisk walk judging by the way it was keeping ahead of her, her own stride carrying her swiftly down the sidewalk with her pink ponytail streaming out behind her. At last she caught a glimpse of it though as it rounded the edge of a busy restaurant, an unassuming young man slim of build but with the unmistakable papery whiteness to his skin that said he was on the prowl. People pointed at him as he scurried past because he stood out, not just due to his skin tone but also because of his eyes she knew, even if she could only see the back of his head from behind. She just needed to tail him until he went somewhere secluded she could follow him, and then it would be all over.

He seemed to be indecisive about what he was doing, and over the next almost half an hour Luka followed along as he stopped repeatedly and looked at the people going about about their business all around. A couple of times he broke off to follow a lone person here or there, but he kept abandoning them before searching for someone else. She'd never seen this behavior in a souldrinker before and it gave her pause. Usually when they were in a feeding craze they would just pursue someone and attack, this was a different pattern all together that she was unfamiliar with. Miku and Haku in the back of her mind, seeing this too through her eyes and hearing her thoughts on it were concerned as well, and worried about her safety on top of it. She could feel their ill ease through their link as though they were there beside her and it made her skin prickle.

" _Don't worry_." She thought to them as she paused a few meters back as the souldrinker stopped at a street corner to wait for a couple of cars to hover by. " _We've done this dozens of times. There's nothing to be concerned about_."

" _We haven't seen one act like this dozens of times though_." Came a reply from Miku, her worry higher than Haku's. The irrational part of the petite girl's mind was lumping this in with her grief over her parents, a fear of losing Luka on top of that enough to cause panic to well up inside her.

" _It will be fine, Luka-chin is the strongest of us now, she can handle it_." Came a thought from Haku in spite of her own worry.

" _How do you know? I thought you were strongest, Haku-chin?_ " Miku's reply came through as traffic cleared and the souldrinker hurried across the street and Luka was quick to follow, still keeping her distance a bit.

" _You two went through some fairly heavy training before all of this recent stuff happened, I think you're both stronger than me now_." It was certainly possible, but it wasn't like they could find out for sure. None of them dared so much as express it, but they all knew it; all of the testing equipment, including the sonic chamber, was gone along with the Compound. All they had now was whatever equipment Haku's parents had left in the lab breath the Yowane Estate. They all felt Miku's pang of grief flash back, but they were both still focused on Luka's hunt.

She kept with her target until he finally seemed to set his sights on a victim, pursuing his prey down an alleyway as a teenage girl turned down it while fiddling with her phone barely paying attention to her surroundings. She disappeared between the buildings a step or two ahead of the creature, and Luka didn't need the heightened urgings of the other two in her head to make her pick up her pace and run for the alley. A souldrinker needed only seconds to kill, and a scream from the girl heralded the sight of him having pinned her to the wall of one of the buildings. She was panicking and flailing at her attacker, but before anything further could happen Luka let out a low reverberating note that was just carefully enough tuned to stagger them. The souldrinker rounded on Luka snarling and the girl stumbled a few feet away and looked back in surprise.

"Run!" Luka told her vehemently, and the girl dashed off as she turned to face the creature. It lunged at her, swiping and snarling, and for all it's body was that of a shorter wispy guy it seemed to have speed enough to make up for it, and then some. The knots of worry in the back of her head surged as Luka had to duck away from a particularly vicious slash of hands twisted like claws. She felt fingers rake through her flowing pink locks to snag the bow holding her ponytail and tear it free. The nanites making up the fake ribbon gave, since they weren't doing anything besides holding carbon in place, and she let them retract back into her body as she completed her spin, but the souldrinker gave her no time to recover, keeping right on her and slashing again and again and again. She spun and ducked and weaved as she ever had, and despite Miku and Haku's mounting anxiety watching this through her eyes and feeling it through her body, Luka never felt like she was in any danger. It may have been quicker than most, but it was still just a souldrinker, and she was a Vocaloid. She needed only a moment, only the briefest instant of opening, and she slipped right onto the crack of his offense when he swung wide and over compensated. The first note channeled through a wrist twist slammed into it's temple snapping it's head back, the second note from her other hand took it in the throat so hard it's skin cratered out in a ripple, and the last high pitched note from an arm curl blasted into it's chest hard enough to send the creature into the wall of the building. Brick and mortar cracked and spiderwebbed out from the impact and the thing slumped to the ground. It was hard to say which of the blows had delt the mortal blow, but after it slid to the ground it did not move again.

" _Do you always have to do that_?" Miku demanded in her head.

" _Do what_?"

" _The wall slam thing! Are you trying to be flashy_?" Came the accusation.

" _What? No!_ " It was a playful accusation, a joke made to relieve tension, but Luka was confused. " _I do not always do that_."

" _Maybe it's a signature move thing? Like wrestlers do_?" Haku suggested, and she heard a giggle through her snowy haired angel's ears. Miku's giggle. Miku had giggled… after so long it was one of the sweetest sounds she'd ever heard. She felt the other two clutch tighter at each other in their embrace, and right that second Luka wanted nothing more in the whole world than to be home with them to share that moment, but… she stared down at the body a moment then very nearly jumped in surprise when a tentative voice came down the alley toward her.

"Oh my god, I was just saved from a rapist by a famous idol!" The teenage girl exclaimed and she moved closer tentatively casting nervous glances at the slumped body. "Did you…" she swallowed, clutching her phone to her chest. "Did you… kill him…?

" _Oh no she saw the whole thing._ " Came Haku's thought in her head and Luka tried to recall exactly how much the girl could have seen. She stood a bit shorter than Luka herself did and had her bangs and front of her lilac shoulder length hair pulled forward into their own tails which hung like a frame at the sides of her face, and her purple eyes were bright and alert. She seemed concerned by the events that had just transpired but not afraid, when staring down at her would be attacker.

"No, just knocked him out." Luka lied smoothly, turning to face the girl with a step that brought her own body smoothly between the teenager and the corpse behind her. "I've got this under control, I'll call the authorities to have them come pick this man up, you shouldn't concern yourself further miss…?"

"Yuzuki." The girl said, tilting her head up at Luka. "Yuzuki Yukari."

"Yuzuki-san, everything is okay now. You can feel comfortable heading home now, ne?"

"Heading home?" Yukari asked with a curious little befuddled expression on her face. "Won't the cops want a statement from me? Don't I have to file a report?"

" _She's not going to go away so easily._ " Luka thought, more to herself than to her girlfriends. She tapped a chin thoughtfully. "Perhaps you're right. Then will you go notify a police officer for me?" Luka asked diplomatically. "I'll wait here and see that no one comes along to disturb the area."

The girl stared at her for a long few moments before giving a shrug and a nod. "Alright, I'll be back as soon as I can." Yukari turned and ran off down the alley, turning the corner and disappearing from sight. Immediately Luka turned and reached down for the body.

" _What are you going to do?_ " Came Haku's concerned thought.

" _I don't know, but I can't leave it here to be discovered._ " Luka thought back as she hoisted the body before her, letting out a grunt of effort and silently giving thanks that the man had been such a slight build in life.

" _Maybe you could dump the body somewhere?_ " Miku hazarded, but it was a half hearted thought, they all knew she couldn't. Lacking the Compound's cleanup crews was a blow now. This had been such a headache these past weeks.

" _I guess I'll have to stash it somewhere nearby then go get the car to come back and get it. I don't think I can get it to the foundry like the others, not this early in the day. We'll have to take it later tonight after dark_." Huffing with the effort she slid the body down the alley until she reached the corner the opposite way Yukari had gone, then peeked out to make sure no one was looking. When she thought the coast was clear she dragged it across the street to the opposing alley way, down to the opposite end of that one, and glanced out there too. She had to wait several times while foot traffic cleared, anxiety at being caught with a corpse mounting inside her.

" _If you can get somewhere to hide with it for a bit we could come get you._ " Haku suggested in her mind.

" _It's not too far to the car, I just need somewhere to stash it for a few minutes._ " She felt them both about to object as she managed another dash into another alley, then spotted a dumpster. It seemed too obvious a place, but there wasn't anything else in easy eyeshot so she dragged him over to it as she cut off the objections. " _Besides, if the worst happens, I don't want all three of us caught. I'd need you two to come to my rescue._ "

" _Please be careful. We'd rather it didn't come to that._ " Haku replied to a fervent wordless agreement from Miku, and Luka nodded, knowing they could feel her assent.

The body went over the side of the dumpster with a heave and a grunt of effort, but she managed it. For all of her power as a sonic energy wielding cyborg she was still a young woman with no more upper body strength than any other girl. Her enhancements were all energy based and agility augments, not strength or power, and her abilities did not help her in this. She shut the lid on the dumpster, cast a worried look at the two doors of the alleyway that led into the adjacent buildings, then hurried off to make for the car. The Ferrari was some little ways off now that she'd spent time pursuing the souldrinker, but the sooner she got to it the sooner she'd be back with it. She tried not to look hurried as she made her way down the busy streets, and reflected that they needed a better system for this sort of thing. Though, with the loss of their previous arrangements, they needed a better method for a lot of things. " _We'll talk about it later, try to come up with new methods_." Came a thought from Haku, having been aware of her musings, and Luka nodded at nothing as though her white haired angel were there with her.

When she finally got back to the car she had to wait for a line of hovering vehicles to hum passed in their perfectly precise computer controlled line before she could get in. As she shut the door and inserted her old ID badge to start it up and reached for the wheel, the thought occurred to her that if she'd had a modern car instead of an antique with a primitive computer and bound to the ground with rubber tires she could have linked to it through their satellite feed and driven it to her and the body with her mind, or even just summoned it and let a current day computer self drive it to her. It could have saved a lot of hassle today.

" _Can we maybe retrofit one of our cars with modern tech?_ " Haku wanted to know.

" _I've seen it done as hobby projects before,_ " Luka thought back, turning the Ferrari out into the street and around the first corner. " _But it's a lot of work that means basically rebuilding most of the vehicle. In the end so much of it is gutted and rebuilt the antique is basically just a shell around modern equipment custom fitted into it, and at that point it's not really even a classic anymore cuz you've taken out all the old magic._ "

" _Nooooooo I love my classic Ferrari! Don't hurt it!_ " Miku thought insistently.

" _Well… then maybe we should see about getting a modern car just for our hunts, ne? It would be a lot safer._ " Back in the studio Haku was looking around the room she was still sitting in while cradling Miku to her chest. The petite girl seemed perfectly content for the moment to nuzzle in where she was, but Haku couldn't stop a faint blush at the feel of her girlfriend cuddled in and touching where she was, her cheeks and nose bumping the sides of her breasts, but she wasn't thinking about that right then. Well… barely thinking about it.

" _As long as it's a sexy car_." Miku's thought seemed a grumble even in her head.

" _Maybe we should go car shopping with Gumi-chan then._ " She suggested with a very out loud giggle, and Miku turned her eyes up to catch Haku's gaze.

"Maybe we should." She said out loud, and Haku felt her chest surge with emotion, and she reached up affectionately to gently brush back a few light blue bangs out of the way of those gorgeous green eyes.

They both watched in their mind's eye as Luka pulled the Ferrari around to the alley she'd left the body in and parked in the mouth of it just far enough in that it was out of sight. She left the engine idling as she got out and walked around to open the passenger door, and as she did the voice of an older man just visible walking by on the sidewalk passed the alley drifted to them as he ranted to a preteen boy following him. "-telling you you're damn lucky to have the sorts of gadgets and gizmos you have these days! When i was your age 3D projections were still experimental and took screens the size of a table top to make anything worthwhile, and hard light hadn't even been invented yet so you couldn't even interact with them! The best we could ever do was wave our hands through them to mess with the light rays! And even then, my grandpappy used to tell us all about how his first phone didn't even have a projector, and how cars when he was a boy were still all stuck to the ground! Humanity has all had it so easy the past couple hundred years no one even appreciates the-" the pair moved on out of sight, the boy clearly not paying attention to his grandfather.

Miku blinked and tilted her head. "Phones without projectors…?" She made a face considering the notion. "Then how did they watch 3D videos?"

"I don't think they did." Haku pondered. "I wonder just how much of modern day technology that we take for granted would be amazing to someone from like the twentieth century."

Her musings were cut short as they watched through their girlfriend's eyes as she tried to get the body out of the dumpster. It seemed the trash level inside was lower than Luka could reach and they could feel every sharp poke and jab of the metal trash bin in the pink haired beauty's sides and tummy through their cyberlink as she hoisted herself up the edge of it. On the outside Luka looked as calm as a frozen lake as she always did, but on the inside they could feel her anger and revulsion at having to deal with this. None of them said or thought anything, just tried to convey love and comfort down their connection to help Luka through this, doing their best to be there for her despite not actually being there physically. Haku thought maybe in the future they should all go together to provide support since it was up to them now, since they didn't have a team at the Compound to do this anymore, or at least go in pairs. They needed to find work arounds for everything to make up for what they'd lost. They had a lab here, her parents must have had some way to deal with-

Abruptly Haku cut off mid pondering and blinked. Miku looked up at her curiously, her moment of mental clarity through her grief still persisting in light of Luka's current struggles. The taller idol had made it clear she didn't want them coming out and risking themselves with her in this moment, but they were at home, and maybe… "Come on." Haku said, urging Miku up off her lap so they could stand up.

"Eh?" Miku uttered a confused plaintive noise at losing her warm snuggle spot, "Where are we going?" Haku took her by the hand and led her out of the studio, wanting to keep Miku as grounded as she could for as long as she could before sinking back into melancholy. Focusing on the music had done it at least for a little while, and with Luka's struggle with the souldrinker she'd been focused too. She wished she'd thought of this weeks ago, could maybe have saved her love some grief, but she hadn't thought Miku to be the focusing type because she was naturally so distractible. But maybe it was that distraction she'd needed all along, and Haku mentally cursed herself for not seeing it sooner. She felt a squeeze of her hand and glanced around at the other girl as they walked through the halls of the mansion. Miku offered a small sad smile. "You know I couldn't handle this without you… both of you… don't you?" She whispered, tears springing up to her green eyes. Haku stopped in her tracks, reached out, and wordlessly wrapped her arms around her girlfriend. Miku accepted the embrace readily enough, and they stood there like that in the middle of the hallway just soaking in the softness and warmth of the other girl until finally Haku got their feet moving again.

The lab levels of the basement behind the secret hidden nanite door (which spread apart for them like a curtain drawing itself open) were fairly expansive, stretching easily the length of the entire manor. When they'd first found it after discovering the refuge of her family estate she'd made a cursory inspection of it just to see what sorts of things were down here, and in truth it had everything the old Vocaloid Compound had held in terms of facilities and equipment, with the sole exception of a testing chamber, but there was certainly plenty enough room for one. After spending time working down here on things like her old error code and the new loop exit problem her software had been throwing occasionally since they'd flashed her hardware she'd found more secret nanite doors leading deeper into the lab. The main room that the stairway down exited into held the giant main lab terminal and a couple of exam tables. Haku walked them through it to the door on the opposite side and into a hallway that turned left and kept going straight ahead. To the right was a door that led to the huge underground garage which Luka had completely taken over, having rearranged every tool and piece off hardware in to her liking. Haku started to walk by it, then paused a moment looking around. The other rooms nearby were component design and maintenance rooms, but…

"Haku-chin what are we doing down here? This place totes gives me the wiggins." Miku complained.

Haku blinked at her curiously. "Why? It's not all that different from… the others we've been in." She's almost said 'from your parent's' but she changed it as she was talking and tried not to think it. A stab of emotional pain from the cyberlink said she didn't manage it, but Miku shook her head and gestured at the lab around them.

"Those seemed as creeptastic to me as this one. So cold and sterile, no life, no beauty."

"It's a laboratory." Haku blinked at her. "What do you think it needs, carpets and flower vases?"

"Maybe!" Miku stuck her tongue out at her. "Right now I'd settle for knowing what we're doing."

"We need to make some modifications." Haku said, glancing around at the hallway again and through the doors she could see. "Carrying on The Vocaloids is up to us now, and we need to start working on things if we're going to get it under control."

Miku blinked at her wide eyed. "What things? What changes?"

"An incinerator, for one thing." Haku said as she began ticking off points in her mind out loud as the thoughts seemed to mount in her head. "So that we have a reliable private way to dispose of the souldrinkers. We need a new sonic testing chamber so we can conduct our own tests. Maybe even a training room made of the same sonic meshing we can train in. We need to find a way to relink the satellite and detection grid to the computers here so we can go back to monitoring the city. I'd like an exam room because I still don't know what the souldrinkers even are or how exactly they work aside from basic principles we talked with the doctors about before. We need a more dedicated maintenance room because we need to be able to monitor our cybernetic implants incase something goes wrong, and we need-"

"Okay okay I get it!" Miku threw her hands up in surrender.

" _I think they're all a great ideas._ " Came a thought from Luka in their minds.

"How are we going to do all of this?" Miku asked and waved a hand at the walls. "That's so much, it will take the three of us forever to accomplish it all!"

" _We'd need a team of people to help pull all that off in a timely manner._ " Luka put in, her thought in their heads accompanied by a view of the road as she was making her way home.

"Maybe…" Miku muttered quietly, and Haku could tell she was trying hard to keep her grief in check as they danced around recent events, could feel the effort the twintailed girl was putting in to holding it back. "Maybe… some of my parent's… team survived the explosion?" She suggested tentatively. "Maybe we could find them…?"

Haku thought about that for a moment but ultimately shook her head. "I don't see how. We were programmed to ignore them, and that never got resolved in the flurry of other events. I don't even know what they look like, let alone their names. Do either of you?"

Miku shook her head morosely and they could feel doubt down their link from Luka. " _There has to be something we can do._ "

"There is." Haku replied, and smiled at her petite girlfriend when her eyes came up hopefully. "We need to recall the other Vocaloids." Miku blinked then smiled prettily and moved in for a hug. For the first time in weeks she had very nearly the feel of her old self back. The other Vocaloids were like family now, after everything they'd been through, and she desperately needed family at a time like this. She buried her face against Haku's neck and nuzzled softly. "Thank you." She whispered, and Haku just squeezed her tightly around the middle.

They spent the next twenty or so minutes until Luka got back going room to room and taking more detailed stock of what was in each and figuring out the purpose for each one. The maintenance rooms right across from the garage access had to stay of course, and so did the component room beside them with it's stations set up for part and implant design and analyses. The storage room on the end however was right beside a secondary back door from the garage, and as it was mostly empty Haku thought it might be large enough for a furnace and conveyor. When they went back down the hallway to the start beside the main room and took the branching corridor further back they found rooms with heavier machinery, most of which she didn't immediately recognize but she assumed had to do with larger scale metal manipulation and the automation necessary to turn out their cybernetic implants. One room back here looked like a sterile chemical bath and another held racks and racks of jars with various colored liquid suspensions in cold storage on one side, a huge chemistry station with rows of tables in the middle, and several large mostly clear glass cases on the other wall that were all empty.

"You could practically build a Vocaloid from scratch in this lab…" Haku said as they wandered between the last few rooms.

"I think I saw a horror flick like this place once." Miku quipped.

They went back out to the front highway, having been keeping a mental eye on Luka's progress, and knew she was nearly back even before the smooth slightly effeminate tone seemed to come from nowhere in the hall they stood in. "Megurine-sama has returned, Yowane-sama."

"Thank you Vy." Haku replied to the Estate's A.I. "Will you please open the hidden garage access for her?"

"Certainly, Yowane-sama." Came the smooth response and the two girls stepped into the garage to watch. A section of the ceiling at the far end of the garage began to lower down at an angle and the light of day could be seen shining through. A few moments later they could hear the Ferrari's engine throttling before that car itself came into view. Luka descended down the ramp and into the hidden garage before the ramp lifted once more to close behind her, and she stopped the car and cut the engine in front of them.

Miku ran up to the pink haired beauty and barely waited for Luka to straighten up out of the car before throwing her arms around her in a huge hug. "Welcome home, I missed you!"

Luka squeezed the twintailed girl around the middle and kissed the top of her head. "I missed you too."

After a few moments Miku gave way for Haku to get a hug, which she did happily enough, if with less force. She slid her arms around the slightly taller girl's waist and fit her body in against Luka's curves. "Welcome home." She felt arms encircle her shoulders and a kiss press against her forehead.

"Thank you." Came that crystal voice that always made Haku melt a little inside. She looked up at her glorious idol and Luka blinked down at her. "You really like my voice that much?"

"It's like crystal…" Haku murmured as her cheeks caught fire. She heard giggling from behind her and shot a stare over her shoulder at Miku, and the petite girl promptly glommed on to her from the back, sandwiching her between them. Haku made a little hrk sound but couldn't deny how much she loved this. At least, she couldn't deny it inside to herself, but of course they could hear that.

"So what was your idea?" Luka asked with that small private smile on her lips, and Haku could feel the amusement and self satisfaction coming from her at the compliment. Haku started hard at the taller idol. It wasn't her fault Luka's voice melted her like butter! Luka's smile deepened.

Clearing her throat and connecting to the internet with a thought Haku brought up her 3D visual overlay and her virtual workspace she used when she analyzed things in real time. They could see her visual input too but they turned to look where she was looking, sharing in the virtual environment with her through the link. She gestured toward the far end of the garage where there were the fewest tools and racks layed out, where the wall was closest to the empty storage room. "A conveyor and an incinerator of our own, so we can dispose of the souldrinkers we bring in." At a wave of her hand she created a sort of 3D holo image of a conveyor she'd brought up online from an industrial manufacturer's website. She shifted it with her will so it was sticking out of the wall just a bit, then led them toward the rear door near it so they could look into the storage room with her. Another holo from the manufacturer's website to bring up an incinerator, and she let it hover in the room. "We connect the conveyor to it, so all we have to do when we bring souldrinkers back is pull up beside it in the garage and set it on the end then activate it." With a gesture a plain grey sphere appeared on the conveyor end, which they could still see in their 3D environment despite the wall now in the way. The conveyor carried it around through the wall to the incinerator in the room they were standing in and deposited it in the giant virtual machine.

"That looks sooooooo handy." Miku bubbled.

"I'm surprised there isn't already something like that here." Luka said, gesturing vaguely around to indicate the rest of the lab. "Don't scientists keep genetic samples they sometimes have to dispose of?"

"Maybe they never had a need for something on this scale here?" Haku guessed. "According to my father's notes this was their first real lab and the earliest one they abandoned. The one I blew up was much bigger than this, they probably only did small scale experiments here, while we have a larger need."

"A need to totes roast baddies by the dozen all flambe style a la Haku-chin!" Miku giggled punching a fist into the air, and the other two started at her.

"Miku-chin…" Luka started.

"Mhm mhm!" Miku gave a couple of decisive nods, and Haku couldn't help herself and dissolved in a fit of giggles which the twintailed girl quickly echoed, and a moment later even Luka fell to the gigglefit.

Luka opened her mouth to say something but that moment Vy's smooth voice cut in. "Yowane-sama, there is a visitor pulling into the driveway."

Haku blinked in surprise, glancing at the other two girls, but her loves both looked as clueless as she did. "Who is it?"

"No identification match found in my files." The Estate's AI replied. "Shall I alert the authorities to a trespasser?"

"What?" Miku blinked rapidly.

"Nono, we'll see who it is." Haku said quickly, and the three of them made their way out of the lab and to the stairs that would take them to the hallway connecting to the entryway. As they exited the stairwell they heard the deep ring of the door chimes, Vy's sensors having notified them ahead of time of the approach, and they quickened their step along the carpet. Ia was quicker though, or perhaps just had been passing by on her way to or from upstairs, because they saw her come into view at the end of the halfway and reach for the door handle to pull it open with a kind smile.

"Yowane Residence, how-" She blinked and cut off briefly, faltering for a moment for some reason they couldn't determine. "How may I help you?" She finished, her smile not failing even as her voice had.

"Aria Ia?!" Came a stronger but still feminine voice sounding confused, a voice they all recognized as they hurried up to the door. "Yowane…? I thought I'd find Megurine Luka here…?"

"I mean… well she does live here but…?" Ia began nervously before the approach of the other girls drew her attention to the side and she let out a relieved sigh. She stepped to the side to let the other three dominate the door, Luka standing in there middle with the other two to either side.

"Yuzuki-san." Luka's crystalline voice came out in a neutral monotone that Haku would have known meant she wasn't feeling particularly accommodating of silliness even without being able to feel her sudden apprehension through their cyberlink. "What are you doing here?"

Yukari shifted her wide eyed gaze from Miku to Haku and back to Miku again before looking up to Luka. "You three are famous idols and you live here together…? Then… the rumors about you…" The apprehension in their shared connection changed to outright defensiveness as their visitor trailed off and blinked at Ia for a moment before turning back to Luka. "What other famous singers are going to come out of the woodwork? Kasane Teto? Megpoid Gumi? Are all the Vocaloids here?"

"What are you doing here?" Luka repeated, her crystal voice hardening to diamonds in her heightened state of defensiveness.

"I followed you." Yukari answered in a nonchalant tone as though there was nothing in the world wrong with that.

"Do you make a habit of following idols around?" Luka asked sharply.

"Do you make a habit of carting bodies around and lying about it?" Yukari retorted. The two stared each other in the eye, matching wills in a showdown that surprised Haku. Not many people she'd ever known could pit themselves against Luka in a contest of willpower.

No matter how much dirt the teenager thought she had on the pink haired beauty she gave a valiant attempt at holding that piercing blue eyed gaze before finally dropping her eyes. Wringing her hands nervously Ia was the one to break the tension with a murmured, "M-Maybe it would be better to have this conversation inside…? I could make some tea…?"

Everyone stood there frozen for a moment as Luka considered the teenager before her. She was the one most under the gun, and tended to naturally take the lead besides, so they all waited on her decision. Finally the taller idol turned without a word in a swirl of pink locks to head inside and Ia let out a little sigh of relief. Once she'd led them into the dining room Luka stood by the spot at that table head because Haku and Miku gave her no choice, standing beside spots to either side. Luka gestured at the far end opposite herself to Yukari as Ia bustled off to see about tea, and once their guest had taken her seat the other three sat as well.

"Whatever you know," Luka began intently, and though she didn't move her head or raise her voice her diamond hard tones still spoke plainly of a stern resolve. "Whatever you think you know, is wrong."

"Then you're not some secret crime fighting vigilante who saves girls in alleyways and drags the bodies off before the police can show up?" Yukari asked dryly.

"We're not vigilantes." Luka replied just as dryly. They stared at each other a moment or two before she went on. "There are things in this world that no one knows about that would be very dangerous if word got out, and we work to contain them. It's a secret, and the fact that you know is very bad."

Yukari started at the three idols then abruptly burst out laughing. "Like spooks in the night?! Please! You're famous idols! Singers! And if the rumors are to be believed, you're in a romantic triangle which, judging by the way I found you all here-?' She glanced around at the Estate them raised a questioning eyebrow. Haku felt a surge of defensiveness through all three of them again but none of them said anything and Yukari gave a short nod. "And now I'm expected to believe you're some sort of monster secret service on top of it? Do you have any idea how insane this all sounds?"

"We know exactly how insane it all seems." Luka said quietly but still diamond hard as Ia came back with the tea, setting cups out and pouring for everyone, starting with their guest, then the pink haired beauty and then Haku and Miku before returning to the other end of the table and pouring for herself. "You can believe it or not, but what you should know is that we must defend this secret… at all costs."

A chill ran down the back of Yukari's neck and she gave a little shiver. "What… does that mean?" She eyed them carefully and blinked. "What, you're not going to let me leave over some feigned monster story or something?"

"Feigned?!" Miku squeaked indignantly. "It's true! How could you think we're making this up?!"

Yukari opened her mouth to say more but was distracted by a hand lain on her arm, and she shifted her gaze to the side. Ia had a compassionate look on her face, her eyes a short of lilac shade at the moment shining with empathy. "You were attacked, weren't you?" She asked softly in a sympathetic voice. The teen's face twisted from the confrontational attitude she'd been having with them so far to one of a more upsetting expression, and abruptly it struck Haku what was going on, her realization instantly sparking the same in her girlfriends as Yukari nodded at Ia.

" _She's not here trying to cause problems, she's here trying to get a resolution to what she thinks was an attempted rape._ " Haku thought down their link.

" _The poor girl, she must be frightened out of her wits, putting up a brave and confrontational front to hide the pain._ ' Miku thought back, her own face taking on a sympathetic grimace.

" _That's very sad… but why did she come here?_ " Luka wondered as she considered the two at the other end of the table. " _She should be relying on family or friends, or at least going to a mental care ward. Why stalk an idol for it?_ "

" _Because she's frightened and you saved her._ " Haku returned, their entire metal exchange taking place at the speed of thought, Yukari having only had time during this to nod tremulously at Ia. " _You make me feel safe all the time, I can see why she wanted to be here. But we were so caught up in the possible security risks to us a Vocaloids we didn't stop to think about what she was going through…_ " The feeling from the other two stained with shame down their link, mirroring her own bubbling up into her chest.

"Did you see it's eyes?" Ia asked the girl beside her in a soft tone. "All black swirling orbs like the depths of the abyss?" Yukari stared at her and nodded, her jaw clenching in an uncomfortable looking way. "It's always those eyes that scare me the most." She said a confiding sort of way. "Nothing human about them at all."

Yukari's eyes defocused for a long few moments as she seemed to visualize what she'd seen, what the other girl was describing. They let her ponder in silence until she finally looked up. "They're not human, whatever they are?"

"No they're not." Luka told her evenly.

Yukari gave a decisive nod. "Then I won't tell anyone, I promise." The three at the head of the table glanced at each other, each able to hear the others' thoughts about it. Was it really so easy as that? Did they really just let her walk out like that? What other option was there? What could they do short of more… extreme measures…?

"Please be sure not to." Luka said, none of them able to think of anything else to say about it. An awkward silence descended, each girl looking around at the others, then abruptly Yukari stood up.

"I'm sorry I forced this issue. I shouldn't have come here, I'll leave." She began to make her way to the door.

Ia reached a hand out as they all stood in response but failed to catch her. "Stay and finish your tea at least!"

Yukari shook her head, "No, I'm sorry to be rude, but I should really go." She opened the door and was a step outside when a call from Luka stopped her.

"Yuzuki-san." Yukari froze and turned back just enough to look over her shoulder dubiously. Luka offered a smile that, while it fell short of friendly, was at least kind. "We have a show coming up, all seven of us. Would you like a VIP seat?"

Yukari blinked apparently caught off guard by so mundane a question as a concert after everything they'd just talked about. Then after a moment she smiled back faintly. "Ah, sure. That sounds like a lot of fun." With that she turned to offer a small bow, which they returned, then got into her car and left, the quiet hum of the repulsors soon fading from hearing as she hovered off.


End file.
